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Bradford Washburn -- Showing steepness

ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
edited February 8, 2006 in Technique
The Panopticon Gallery is right next door to my office in Waltham, MA and I love to go in there and catch the shows. That's how I got to know the work of Bradford Washburn. Panopticon is owned by his son-in-law and is his exclusive agent as well as showing a lot of his work.

Anyway, I went in today. The current show is Winter and inclues a huge print (50x35 inches) of this photo:

55627545-O.jpg

Copyright ©2004 Bradford Washburn
Skiers in Tuckerman's Ravine,
Mt. Washington, N.H., 1938

I've seen this photo before, but never larger than 8x10. What a difference to see it so large! The following is a detail from the lower middle, just slightly to the right. Boris, the gallery's master printer, made it for me to share with you:

55627552-O.jpg

Copyright ©2004 Bradford Washburn
Skiers in Tuckerman's Ravine (detail),
Mt. Washington, N.H., 1938

I've seen tons of shots of Tuckerman's but never one that made it look as steep as it seems when you are there. The vantage point here helps a lot: looking down from an airplane. But I think the light that Wasburn caught on the snow helps even more.

[Images shown inline with the full knowledge and consent of Bradford Washburn's exclusive agent, Panopticon, Inc.]
If not now, when?

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    DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited February 8, 2006
    Tuckerman's is awesome, and those are some great images. One of my best friends in high school had a huge print (must have been at least 4' on the long side) of a photo his grandfather took there, it was stunning. But you're right, Rutt, it's not easy to capture the steepness of the place on film.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

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    ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2006
    Just to be very clear, this is one photograph and the second shot is cropped out of the first image just to show the detail. This is aerial photography. It looks steep because we are looking down but even more so because of the way the light is catching the snow on the headwall.

    [I feel I have to reiterate, since everyone here has just a good proven track record at reading whole posts carefully.]
    If not now, when?
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    ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2006
    Oh, and look at that exposure! No overexposed snow here. That texture is key to the sense of steepness in this shot (and actually in all of Washburn's snow shots.)

    If you don't know Washburn's work, he's amazing. He's alive and 95 years old now. He's grown on me to the point where I consider him to be among the very greatest landscape photographers of all time. Nobody ever conveyed the hugeness of the subject like he did.

    There is a nice online gallery of his work here.
    The book Mountain Photography is well worth owning.
    If not now, when?
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