12 books of Christmas: ‘Galen Rowell’

You look at the soft-cover version of “Galen Rowell: A Retrospective” (Sierra Club Books, $39.95) and you want to weep — at the beauty of his photography, at the notion that Rowell and his wife, Barbara, were taken too soon. The couple died in a plane crash in August 2002, a shock at the time and a shock still.

This retrospective, with an intro by friend and admirer Tom Brokaw and commentaries by other comrades, contains 180 of his images.

In many, light is the frosting on an otherworldly cake (”Fall Sunrise on the High Sierra Over the Owens Valley, 2000″); in others, it is the subject captured just so that stuns and delights (”Lynx in Alpine Flowers, Teklanika River, Alaska Range, Alaska, 1974″).

If looking at his photos and reading about his life don’t make you believe in something, the world is truly too much with you.

Click here for “12 books” posts.

— Catharine Hamm, Times Travel editor

[Photo: Sierra Club Books website]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19, 2008 at 11:42 am by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Alaska, Arizona, Big Sur, California, California's Central Coast, Carmel, Fall, Family & Kids, Global, Honeymoon, Spa & Romance, Islands & Beaches, Lake Tahoe & Eastern Sierra, Monterey Peninsula, Napa Valley, National Parks, Northern California, Ojai, Orange County, Outdoors & Adventure, Pacific Northwest, Palm Springs, San Luis Obispo, Sierra Nevada, Sonoma Wine Country, Spring, Summer, Travel Photography, Ventura, Weekend Getaways, Yosemite National Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.