Galen Rowell

Early life and education

Rowell was introduced to the wilderness at a very young age and began climbing mountains at the age of ten. For the next 52 years, he climbed mountains and explored the wilderness. He began taking pictures on excursions into the wild so he could share his experiences with friends and family. After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1958, he stayed in Berkeley to study physics at the University of California but dropped out after four years to pursue his love of climbing. He was never formally trained as a photographer.

Career

In 1972 Rowell sold his small automotive business and became a full-time photographer. Within a year, he had completed his first major assignment, a cover story for National Geographic. The story, originally initiated by an invitation from fellow photographer Dewitt Jones to help him on an assignment, came about when Jones was called away and Rowell suggested an ascent of Yosemite National Park's Half Dome that he documented on his own. When National Geographic got the pictures, they decided to do a story separate from Jones's and thus Rowell got his start. He pioneered a new kind of photography in which he was not merely an observer, but considered himself a participant in the scenes that he photographed — he considered the landscape part of the adventure, and the adventure part of the landscape.

He won the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography in 1984. He had numerous photographic assignments for Life, National Geographic, Outdoor Photographer, and various other publications. Rowell was also a highly regarded writer on subjects ranging from photography, humanitarian and environmental issues, human visual cognition, and mountaineering, publishing numerous magazine articles and eighteen books in his lifetime. His In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods about the history of mountaineering on K2 (1977) is considered a classic of mountaineering literature, and his 1986 book Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape is one of the best selling how-to photo books of all time. Also an energetic advocate for the causes in which he believed, Rowell served on multiple advisory and directors' boards for organizations ranging from the Committee of 100 for Tibet to the World Wildlife Fund.

Rowell was particularly keen on seeking out and photographing optical phenomena in the natural world. He referred to his landscape photographs as “dynamic landscapes,” due to both the fast-changing nature of light and conditions and his energetic pursuit of the best camera position at the optimal moment. Rowell wrote about the quest for such images in his books Mountain Light (1986), Galen Rowell's Vision (1993), and Inner Game of Outdoor Photography (2001). He was to embark on a thunderstorm shooting expedition with storm chasing meteorologist and photographer Alan Moller upon returning from the fateful Alaska trip that led to his death.

A major retrospective book on his life, career, and impact on the various worlds he touched was published by Sierra Club Books.

Photography techniques and equipment

From 1968 on, he used 35mm Nikon cameras and lenses almost exclusively for their reliability and portability. His main media choice was color slide film, beginning with Kodachrome in the 1970s and 1980s and Fuji Velvia following its introduction in 1990.

Rowell conceived a technical approach of extending the dynamic range to be captured on film. He developed a set of graduated neutral density filters and had them produced by Singh-Ray, a filter manufacturer. They were sold under his name and became a standard for dealing with high contrast scenes.

Galen Rowell also mastered the technique of using balanced fill flash which allowed him to lighten the deepest shadows in a subtle way to match the relatively narrow dynamic range of color reversal film.

Death

Rowell, his wife Barbara Cushman Rowell, pilot Tom Reid, and Reid's friend Carol McAffee were all killed in a plane crash in Inyo County near Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in Bishop, California, at 01:23 AM on August 11, 2002. The Rowells were returning from a photography workshop in Alaska on a flight that had originated in Oakland. The National Transportation Safety Board determined (NTSB report LAX02FA251) that the pilot had only 52 hours in the Aero Commander 690 and only 1.6 hours at night. He was not current for carrying passengers at night at the time of the accident.

Climbing and adventuring accomplishments