Galen Rowell's Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography

Sierra Club Books, 1995. Trade Paperback.
"My style of photography, " Galen Rowell writes in his preface to this book, "is adventure." The pursuit of his craft "implies active visual exploration that is more mental than physical. The art becomes an adventure and vice versa." With these remarks, Rowell begins an exploration in word and image that is itself an adventure. In sixty inspirational and practical essays based on his popular column in Outdoor Photographer, and in more than one hundred and forty color photographs with extended captions. Galen Rowell reveals the inner workings of the art, business, and lifestyle of outdoor photography. Along the way, he clearly explains the sensibility that has enabled him to transform light and color into vivid, highly expressive art. The result is a unique investigation of the intuitive relationship between the artist and the natural environment. The book's four parts, each containing ten to twenty selections on fundamental aspects of the craft as Rowell practices it, are structured like an adventure story. "Goals" advises the reader on transforming visions into reality. "Preparations" discusses pushing and transcending the limits of equipment. "Journeys" is about traveling lightly - and intrepidly - to photograph such exotic locales as Alaska, Antractica, Canada, the Galapagos Islands, Guatemala, Nepal, Pakistan, Patagonia, Siberia, and Tibet. Finally, "Realizations" explores how to communicate one's worldview through photography, including the all-important question of how to get published. Rowell also deals with technical matters, such as what gear to take and what film to use, as well as ethical issues, such as digital content manipulation versus authenticity in images. His insightsrange from the artistic - "There is no single visual reality" - to the spiritual - "Much of the source of enlightenment through exotic travel is . . . the pretravel discipline of getting one's life in order." He relates numerous fascinating anecdotes from his brilliant career: ge