Jan Serr is a photographer who is a painter and a painter who is a photographer. In this book she has created a body of work focused on color and composition, with no regard for traditional photography or painting. Then & Now is a book of painterly photographs. All of which is one of the reasons she is drawn to China and India . (Then & Now: China Photographs is published simultaneously with Smoke & Mirrors: India Photographs.) In both cultures there is a continuity of art and design, content and form, without the false dichotomies that divide and unfortunately permeate Western thinking, values, and practices. In China and India, the past is perpetually present. Serr worked on every aspect of the book'image, composition, typography, paper, and binding. Then & Now is a portfolio of photographs where the book itself is a primary form of art.