DELTA is an update of Roger Minick’s critically acclaimed photo book, DELTA WEST, originally published in 1969. This current incarnation of that book includes, in addition to most of the original images, 54 previously unpublished images. The result is a magnificient tribute to both the land and people of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and to Minick’s early photography.

In the preface to DELTA, Minick writes about making two of his most famous photographs from the series:

“...that fateful day I was walking down a back alley and as I rounded a corner I stopped in my tracks. Just ahead I saw a man sitting on a tattered overstuffed sofa under a moss covered porch, a dog and a pile of empty wine bottles at his feet. After exchanging pleasantries with the man, whom I came to know as Mr. Cheng, I asked him if I could take a photograph of him sitting just as he was. When he nodded his head, I remember feeling a sudden flush of adrenalin as everything seemed to slow down. From fear that the tableau before me and my increasing excitement would cause me to flub the shot, I double-checked the composition, exposure and focus before releasing the shutter. After taking sev- eral frames, with Mr. Cheng and his dog remaining perfectly still, I then saw Mr Cheng reach for a hat and cradle it in his lap. I stepped forward, my hands starting to tremble, and when I focused the camera in close I saw gleaming in the camera’s ground glass an image I was certain would become a final print...”