Tom Brokaw has written the intro to a new photo book also being excerpted this month in Vanity Fair. The whole project, American Character: A Photographic Journey (Chronicle, $40), was published last month as a venture between USA Network and the Aperture Foundation. Among the big-name lensers included are Mary Ellen Mark and Sylvia Plachy. Among the other contributors is Seattle shooter Anna Mia Davidson, who did a photo essay on organic farmers up near Carnation and in the Skagit Valley. (That’s her image of “Olivia with chicken” at the Frog’s Song Farm.) Davidson has exhibited prior work at Benham Gallery and elsewhere; you can see more of her farm series on her Web site.