Two summers ago, Homer and California artist and writer Tom Reed hiked into the Andes Mountains of southern Patagonia, Argentina in search of wilderness. Reed, 52, has traveled from South America to Southeast Asia, from California to Alaska, rowing, surfing and running wild rivers.

In Patagonia, he found awe.

Heading across a valley, he looked up and saw Cerro Terre, a majestic, granite spire.

"This state I am now in, however -- the state of awe -- is anything but weak. It could be the most powerful emotion I know," Reed writes in his new book, "The Granite Avatars of Patagonia." "How can a rock do this to a man?"

Reed, who divides his time between Fort Bragg, Calif., and his summer cabin out East End Road, released "The Granite Avatars" this month. A self-published and self-produced book, it explores through text and photos what he learned on that trip.

Or trips, actually.

Reed returned to photography after discovering digital cameras and computer photo software.

"The digital age made it so much easier," he said in a phone interview from Fort Bragg. "Between not having to carry the weight anymore and not needing the darkroom, I'm back in it."

On his 2007 trip, Reed took 600 photographs of Cerro Terre and El Chalten, officially known as Monte Fitz Roy. At the end of his trip, he left his camera on a car and lost it.

"So I had to go back again the next year, and do exactly the same things, but I had to do more," Reed said. "It was an incredible weather year. It was too nice."

Reed has written a longer account of his journey, "The Other Side." After trying to find an agent with no luck, he decided to combine part of that book with his photographs. The result is "The Granite Avatars," a coffee-table book of 40 black-and-white photographs and 43 pages of text. Reed describes his book as "a stream of consciousness account of me walking in those mountains and having my mind blown."

"I equate it to a conversation," he said. "If you and I took a hike together, we'd talk about all sorts of things, but the physical environment would bring us back. It drifts like that, but it's anchored in the physical experience."

Reed came to Homer in 1982. He's best known for his "Tribute to Performing Artists," a mural on Pioneer Avenue and Main Street in front of NOMAR. First painted in 1985, Reed repaired and updated the mural last fall. He describes his employment history as "more accurately, a history of avoiding employment," and has worked as a surveyor, a carpenter, a whitewater rafting guide, a deckhand and a martial arts instructor in karate, aikido, aikken (sword) and aikijo (staff). Reed also studies the Japanese arts of the tea ceremony, calligraphy, ink painting and flower arranging. His teacher in Japanese arts, Dr. Shozo Sato, saw some of his Patagonia photographs and encouraged him to explore that further.

Reed's crisp, stark black-and-white photographs show a strong influence from Ansel Adams. Reed said he also has been inspired by Edgar Payne's plein air paintings of the High Sierras. Japanese aesthetics helped him refine his sense of composition, including the finishing touch of Reed's red chop -- the same signature seen on his Homer mural.

What awe means to Reed forms the heart of his book. Does the emotion of awe have a Darwinian or biological purpose, like the emotion of fear? Is there some rational reason for awe -- something that improves the chances of survival?

"It's hard to rationalize how people could have evolved to experience awe from nature," Reed said. "By the end of the book, I come to the conclusion that nature is divine."

This month, Reed starts a Lower 48 tour promoting and selling "The Granite Avatars." Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia outdoor gear, wrote a blurb for the book and has agreed to sell it in Patagonia's retail line.

"Patagonia has a keen, clear observer in Tom Reed," Chouinard said. "His feeling for the landscape and its wild power comes through in his writing and in the questions he raises about ourselves as natural beings acting in a natural world."

Reed financed the printing for "The Granite Avatars" through advance, pre-publication sales. On his tour he'll speak and show slides at outdoor and photography clubs as well as at outdoor gear stores like Rei. No specific dates for an Alaska tour have been set. For information about "The Granite Avatars" or to order copies, visit www.tomreed.com. The book is $49.95, including postage.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michaelarmstrong.@homernews.com.