Galen Rowell Quotes

[abraxas]

Whether or not you are a fan of the late Galen Rowell's work, I thought the following quotes may be of interest to those into nature photography;

A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy.

And most of my early pictures failed but about one in a 100 somehow looked better than what I saw.

Ever since the 1860s when photographers travelled the American West and brought photographs of scenic wonders back to the people on the East Coast of America we have had a North American tradition of landscape photography used for the environment.

I almost never set out to photograph a landscape, nor do I think of my camera as a means of recording a mountain or an animal unless I absolutely need a 'record shot'. My first thought is always of light.

I began taking pictures in the natural world to be able to show people what I was experiencing when I climbed and explored in Yosemite in the High Sierra.

I began to realise that film sees the world differently than the human eye, and that sometimes those differences can make a photograph more powerful than what you actually observed.

I find it some of the hardest photography and the most challenging photography I've ever done. It's a real challenge to work with the natural features and the natural light.

I like to feel that all my best photographs had strong personal visions and that a photograph that doesn't have a personal vision or doesn't communicate emotion fails.

I remember when an editor at the National Geographic promised to run about a dozen of my landscape pictures from a story on the John Muir trail as an essay, but when the group of editors got together, someone said that my pictures looked like postcards.

I think landscape photography in general is somewhat undervalued.

I think that cognitive scientists would support the view that our visual system does not directly represent what is out there in the world and that our brain constructs a lot of the imagery that we believe we are seeing.

I'm exchanging molecules every 30 days with the natural world and in a spiritual sense I know I am a part of it and take my photographs from that emotional feeling within me, rather than from an emotional distance as a spectator.

If we limit our vision to the real world, we will forever be fighting on the minus side of things, working only too make our photographs equal to what we see out there, but no better.

Luckily, many other people tell me how they have had a particular landscape photograph of mine in their office or bedroom for 15 years and it always speaks to them strongly whenever they see it.

My first thought is always of light.

My mountaineering skills are not important to my best photographs, but they do add a component to my work that is definitely a bit different than that of most photographers.

One of the biggest mistakes a photographer can make is to look at the real world and cling to the vain hope that next time his film will somehow bear a closer resemblance to it.

The combination of pictures and words together can be really effective, and I began to realise in my career that unless I wrote my own words, then my message was diluted.

The landscape is like being there with a powerful personality and I'm searching for just the right angles to make that portrait come across as meaningfully as possible.

The reason that I keep writing is that all my most powerful messages about the fates of wild places that I care about need to have words as well as images.

There is no question that photography has played a major role in the environmental movement.

There's no question that photographs communicate more instantly and powerfully than words do, but if you want to communicate a complex concept clearly, you need words, too.

These days, most nature photographers are deeply committed to the environmental message.

Today, I'm very careful not to mention very specific locations when I write or give captions.

Wanting to take a light camera with me when I climb or do mountain runs has kept me using exclusively 35 mm.

What I mean by photographing as a participant rather than observer is that I'm not only involved directly with some of the activities that I photograph, such as mountain climbing, but even when I'm not I have the philosophy that my mind and body are part of the natural world.

When we tune in to an especially human way of viewing the landscape powerfully, it resonates with an audience.

 

[saycheese76]

Those are some great quotes. Landscape photography is not my favorite type to shoot or look at, but he is still one of my favorites. Both his philosophy and his work are moving.

 

[abraxas]

Those are some great quotes. Landscape photography is not my favorite type to shoot or look at, but he is still one of my favorites. Both his philosophy and his work are moving.

I think it was your tag that finally got me to looking for these. It wasn't until a few years ago that I had even heard about Galen. I ran across his web site looking for photos of the Bishop area. They were very striking to me. Reading his articles, he could express some of the things I felt. His work has been a major influence to me ever since.

 

[saycheese76]

They were very striking to me.

That is a good way of putting it. I got a huge book of his work out of the library and seeing them on giant pages really knocked my socks off.

 

[abraxas]

That is a good way of putting it. I got a huge book of his work out of the library and seeing them on giant pages really knocked my socks off.

I've been to the Mountain Light Gallery in Bishop, Ca. and seen them there. Impressive, but that was a couple years ago. I had a chance to buy a copy of one of his books at a used/out of print/rare bookstore about a year ago, but ended up buying an out of print history book. Went back the next week and it was totally gone. Oh well. As I mentioned, your tag and one of his photos on Outdoor Photography magazine got me to look into his work again, and of course, his philosophy. The magazine cover had all of their bells, whistles and BS plastered all over it, but the clear, small copy on the inside just blew me away.

 

[saycheese76]

This one is my personal favorite.
You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either. - Galen Rowell

 

[abraxas]

This one is my personal favorite.
You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either. - Galen Rowell

I've been thinking about that one a lot lately- Mostly about how I've been missing quite a few good days this month. ... Things.

Considering my background in photographing for documentation, if I had to pick one to be my favorite it'd be;

"The combination of pictures and words together can be really effective, and I began to realise in my career that unless I wrote my own words, then my message was diluted."
Galen Rowell

I believe that the two together can say something with an impact that neither can say on their own. (Did I just requote him? )

BTW, That link seems to be a pretty good resouce.

 

[saycheese76]

I've been thinking about that one a lot lately-
I believe that the two together can say something with an impact that neither can say on their own. (Did I just requote him? )

BTW, That link seems to be a pretty good resouce.

True enough. Another of my favorites for quotes is THIS GUY.


The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks! - Henri Cartier-Bresson - during the 1930's

 

[abraxas]

True enough. Another of my favorites for quotes is THIS GUY.


The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks! - Henri Cartier-Bresson - during the 1930's

Henri Cartier-Bresson deserves more of my time. There's two of his photos I think of when I hear/read his name. I like his quotes. If I had to pull one out of the box that impresses me right now I'd choose;

"There is no closed figure in nature. Every shape participates with another. No one thing is independent of another, and one thing rhymes with another, and light gives them shape." - Henri Cartier-Bresson

I can use that thought. The photoquotes site is quite interesting. The quote about rocks got me looking into Weston. I haven't heard to much about him, so I'll be on that too. But the site lists two, Edward and Brett. Edward is the one I've heard of and seen a bit of his work. I checked out Brett. This quote floored me;

"Anything more than 500 yds from the car just isn't photogenic."
Brett Weston -

I've thought similar to this for sometime. I've gone on class field trips where we've hiked up into where-ever-it-is to see the rare what-is-it or the odd unconformity or the look-at-that-thing, and have sort felt let down photographically while students in the discipline are going through uncontrollable shakes and excited frenzies over what I see as -some gray thing-. Usually, the longer the hike, the less aesthetic the subject. Sometimes that's not the case, but I always have fun.

But to be fair to Brett the back end of the quote reads -

"Attributed to Brett Weston referring to working with a 10 x 8 view camera. In an interview with David Graham in July 1989 View Camera magazine. "

 

[saycheese76]

The cool thing about reading the thoughts of the masters is the wide range of ideas you can draw upon for inspiration. Adams was a total technician, obsessed with technical perfection, Bresson cared little for the tech aspects and seemed to be more about the "decisive moment". Two philosophies at odds with each other, but one would be well served absorbing elements of both. Good times.

 

[abraxas]

The cool thing about reading the thoughts of the masters is the wide range of ideas you can draw upon for inspiration. Adams was a total technician, obsessed with technical perfection, Bresson cared little for the tech aspects and seemed to be more about the "decisive moment". Two philosophies at odds with each other, but one would be well served absorbing elements of both. Good times.

I agree. Here's a quote that I've liked since I first heard it in school over 35 years ago;

"I am part of all that I have met."
Ulysses - Alfred Lord Tennyson