“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.” -Galen Rowell
Participatory photography
Galen Rowell wanted to match his feelings with the scenes he saw rather than being just a recorder of light — an observer with a camera.
His devotion to the environment, particularly the wilderness led him to become a mountaineer. He was very athletic and fit. He would run to the tops of mountains with his simple camera gear, a Nikon FE or FM2 with a zoom lens.
He would often include himself in a scene (opening photo
f/8 and be there
Galen Rowell subscribed to the predominant philosophy of photographers of his time that the most important part of being a photographer was simply showing up. He leveraged his advantage of spending a lot of his time outdoors where he knew the light would be perfect. “When the magic hour arrives, my thoughts center on light rather than on the landscape,” Rowell said. “I search for perfect light, then hunt for something earthbound to match with it.”
Mountain light
Galen Rowell built his business by recording light in the mountains from the Himalayas to the Sierras. He would often use graduated ND (neutral density) filters to control the brightness of the sky and bring it into line with areas in shadow from mountains. His photography was completely film-based because portable digital cameras did not exist then. “Still photographs,” he wrote, “especially those originally matched to a strong vision are virtually unforgettable.”
He made over 30 trips to mountain ranges in Patagonia, Nepal, New Zealand, Tibet, Siberia, China, Alaska and the western U.S. His best-selling book “Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape” was published in 1986.
National Geographic
Galen Rowell went from owning a high-performance car repair shop to being a photographer in 1972. He got an assignment to make the images for a Nat Geo cover article on Yosemite Valley. During his career, he made photographs for more than 10 covers of the magazine.
In 1981, along with his wife, Barbara (Cushman) Rowell, he founded Mountain Light. They opened Mountain Light Gallery in Emeryville, CA to sell his work. The gallery moved to Bishop, CA in 2001.
Plane crash
Rowell and his wife with pilot Tom Reid and another passenger, Carol McAffee were killed when their small plane carrying them from a trip to the Bering Sea crashed in Bishop, CA. Galen Rowell was 61.
Sources: Outdoor Photographer, New York Times, Ansel Adams Gallery.
Read more stories about inspirational photographers in On Photography.
