In Topography of Quiet the artist Bastienne Schmidt, a DART reader, explores the subtle interaction between nature and imagination through painting, drawing and photography. Inspired by the beauty of natural patterns and typologies that she discovered on her extensive travels in Egypt, Vietnam, Japan, Burma and Greece, she traces with the camera, pencil and paintbrush the impact that our environment has on our imagination—and vice versa.

Ms. Schmidt combines the notion of traveling in real life and in her mind, searching and documenting divisions of space, markings and mappings as a reflection of a search for identity and place.

In the book she writes, “Traveling and being exposed to different parts of the world influenced me as an artist early on. As a child, our parents would pack the five kids in our old Ford and drive one thousand miles from Greece to Germany, crossing into Yugoslavia, Italy and Austria.

“These summer trips were incredibly inspiring. We were the moving part: wrapped tightly like a cocoon; passing through changing landscapes; seeing the difference in the physical structures of houses and store fronts; watching people working in the fields. In my mind I compared all of these small visible systems of life, I think that's where I get my love of typologies, topographies and maps.”

This, her fifth book, is a continuation of a process that began early in her photography practice. She says that when working on a long-term project, she always finds herself planning the next one. She continues, “It somehow always does inform my work, like a cross feeding of form and content. I love making books, so whenever I work on a long term project the thought of a book is on my mind.  I learned years ago from the photographer Ralph Gibson—who is a master when it comes to conceptualizing his work in books—that you have to take ownership of your work.

“In terms of photographic images I draw on one hand from my archive and on the other I create images that belong to a particular narrative. There is a lot of structure and play at work. My previous book Home Stills was about a fictional character of a housewife, a lone figure who ventured out into different landscapes. With Topography of Quiet there is no more figure to be seen, it’s all about being in space.

Bastienne Schmidt | Topography of Quiet is on view through April 21 at Kenise Barnes Fine Art, 1947 Palmer Avenue, Larchmont, NY. Information. The book (Jovis 2014) is being released in April.

Ms. Schmidt, whose work has been selected for American Photography 30, is one of the winners of the 2014 Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Color Photography Awards. Her work is on view at the Photographic Resources Center at Boston University. Information.

Bastienne Schmidt is a mixed media artist working with photography, painting  and large scale drawings. She was born in Germany, raised in Greece and Italy and has lived in New York for the past 20 years. Her art work is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the International Center of Photography, the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris among others. She is represented by Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York.