Wildsam Field Guides

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Wildsam Field Guides

Modern travel with a bygone sense of place. Wildsam books capture neighborhood stories and expert in

Founded in 2012, WILDSAM FIELD GUIDES is a modern travel series with a bygone sense of place. The guides bring to life what John Steinbeck described in East of Eden as the "faraway joyous look" that accompanies curiosity. They move beyond itinerary, discovering genuine experiences and exploring urban heritage with local interviews, illustrated maps, a city almanac and personal essays from renowne

d writers like Joan Didion and Tony Earley. WILDSAM is bighearted, offbeat, gritty and delightful - like all great cities.

30/06/2023

Wildsam’s new field guide to Zion National Park awakened us to this landscape’s desert grandeur and surprising, lush greenery. We dispatched photographer Chiara Zonca to document the fleeting moments of light, shadow and color that define a Zion experience, using large-format cameras and techniques that evoke the long heritage of American nature photography dating back to the 19th Century. To accompany Chiara’s photos, we asked writer Boyce Upholt to reflect on what photography means in “wild” spaces–both across the history of American conservation, and in today’s image-saturated world.

✨ Explore the full piece in our latest story:

https://www.wildsam.com/pages/zion-photo-essay

19/09/2022

The Twin Cities cover color is inspired by the bright red of painted Dala horses on display at the American Swedish Institute and the lingonberry sauce served alongside the meatballs at its cafe, Fika. 🍒

16/09/2022

We love ⁠ window into the world. These snaps from Los Angeles especially. Thanks, Nat. ⁠🍊

14/09/2022

We've had a project in the works for a few months now. Something that involves one of the best crews here in Austin. Can't wait to share (next week). 👀

02/09/2022

The branched cacti that are emblematic of the Southwest don’t stand tall just anywhere–you’ll only find the spiny sentinels in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. The best place of all to encounter them is Saguaro National Park, which encircles Tucson. In particular, you want the western district, where the massive cacti grow so densely that the Park Service calls it a cactus forest, without a trace of irony. Some grow into 200-year-old specimens with up to 25 arms, while others remain a single enormous spire–no one knows exactly why. For an iconic Southwest shot, look for a saguaro with three or four prongs, preferably an hour before sundown for a silhouette.⁠ 🌵⁠
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01/09/2022

Queen of the plains. Capital of the Rockies. Crossroads of the⁠
American West. ⚡️

31/08/2022

We have a thing for old signs (and life-size novelty ice cream cones). ⁠
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📸 John Vachon c. 1941 in Hartford, Wisconsin

29/08/2022

Now seems like an excellent time to spend a few days getting lost in D.C.'s museums. More in stories. ✨

23/08/2022

Up, up and away. ⁠🎈⁠Taos Mountain Balloon Rally happens this October. Have y'all ever been? ⁠

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19/08/2022

🍻 ⁠If those tiles could talk.

17/08/2022

When a photo just speaks for itself. 🌈⁠
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📸 .vigilphoto

15/08/2022

Last-minute trips are the best. Pick a spot, book an airbnb, hop in the car and go. 38 official days left of summer...

12/08/2022

Standing in a Catskills stream, far off the grid in western Montana, tucked deep into a Smokies thicket, floating the South Texas flats: the pastime of fly-fishing knits together purists from all waters. ⁠
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09/08/2022

Just picture it: Come the final out, the Cotuit Kettleers burst from the dugout as though they’ve just won the World Series. They whoop, they scream, college boys bouncing in a pack by the pitcher’s mound. The Harwich Mariners trudge off, heads hanging. In the crowded stands, fans rise to cheer the Cape Cod Baseball League’s reigning dynasty. It’s a high summer moment, the kind the Cape League has delivered for decades. Top college players from around the country come here to train, temporarily becoming Kettleers and Mariners, Commodores and Anglers. It’s a chance to swing a real wooden bat, maybe catch a pro scout’s eye. More immediately, the league offers a distinctly American shot at fleeting small-town glory: a summer on the diamonds of this salty peninsula, a season of hustle and dreams that just might end with a whole town's ringing cheers.⁠
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📸 Harris & Ewing, circa 1955⁠
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08/08/2022

Rebecca Solnit writes that San Francisco is “where America comes to reinvent itself.” It could be said just as well that the city is always somewhere in the midst of self-renewal. San Francisco rose again from earthquake ruins and follows every bust with a boom. This all seems to have a mysterious logic of its own. No gold rush prospector would have predicted the hippies. No love-in held a specific clue to high tech. Somehow, here, it happened. San Francisco in every age is a five-sense city. It’s fully alive,⁠ and it never rests. ⁠
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04/08/2022

Home Team: It's hot and we've got this. Here's the playbook. Start the day with a spin around Lady Bird Lake and a swim in eternally cool Barton Springs, a.k.a The Jog & Dip. Make your way to Cisco's for huevos rancheros, side of biscuits. Mid-day is tough, there's no getting around it, but a noon showing at Alamo Drafthouse, followed by a trip to the Blanton (don't sleep on that Latin American wing) helps. If you happen to have a friend with a boat, even better. Wrap things up with oysters at Clark's and a spin (and ice cold Lone Star) around the dance floor at Donn's Depot.

01/08/2022

Bill Russell was the champion of champions. Eleven NBA titles. Olympic gold. Back-to-back high school championships in the 50s. No one wore the coat of greatness like Russell. You can see it in the photographs from Celtics days; you can see it it how the superstars who followed regarded him with the honor of a seven-foot king. When sportswriters toss around the word “legend,” it’s Russell who makes you think, Yeah, that is a Legend. Every time NBA games cut to him courtside and he would share a few words, I always listened closely, leaning in to absorb a glint of wisdom. His life—beyond the basketball court—was like an American epic: adulation, injustice, heroism, joy. A life of power and grace. To use a word he often used, Russell had a presence. As he famously said, it wasn’t that you needed to block every shot, your opponent simply had to believe that you might. You could tell that Bill Russell as a human went miles deep. When I think of that now, something else he said comes to mind. One thing I never forgot hearing him say: “My most prized possession? My library card from the Oakland Public Library.” Legend.

29/07/2022

Turn me loose, set me free⁠
Somewhere⁠
In the middle of Montana⁠
Give me all I’ve got comin’ to me⁠
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–Merle Haggard⁠
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📸 .vigilphoto

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