Workshop Schedule for 2009 Announced!

Photo © 2008 Elizabeth Carmel

This year’s program is expanded with more top instructors and more on-location workshops – including the West’s premier national parks and monuments, the Oregon coast, and Patagonia!

Mountain Light Workshops have been honored with recognition by both Sunset and American Photo magazines. Sunset selected our workshop program as one of its top-ten smart vacation picks, while American Photo gave Mountain Light Workshops top billing among a handful of America’s best photo workshop operators.

The 2009 workshops include:

Photo © 2008 Galen Rowell

Jack Dykinga
March 23–26 • Death Valley

Jeff Foott
April 20–23 • Yosemite Valley

Justin Black
Apr 30–May 3 • Spring in the Eastern Sierra

Bob Krist
May 7–10 • Spring in the Eastern Sierra

John Shaw
May 25–29 • Oregon Coast

Elizabeth Carmel
June 22–26 • Lake Tahoe

Photo © 2008 John Shaw

David Muench
July 6–10 • High Sierra & Bristlecone Pines

David Muench
July 13–17 • Yosemite High Country,
Mono Lake, and Bodie Ghost Town

John Shaw
October 1–4 • Eastern Sierra Fall Colors

John Shaw
October 8–11 • Eastern Sierra Fall Colors

Jack Dykinga and Jeff Foott

Photo © 2008 John Shaw

A 10 percent registration discount will be granted to returning participants who have taken any past workshop operated by Mountain Light. New participants who simultaneously enroll in two workshops are also eligible for a 10 percent discount off both sessions. A 10 percent discount is also available to full-time students, full-time art or photography instructors and members of the North American Nature Photographers’ Association. Please note these discounts are not cumulative and that the maximum available discount on any workshop is 10 percent.

Each workshop is limited to 12 or 15 participants to insure that everyone receives the time and attention needed. We expect these to fill up quickly, please contact us promptly to reserve your space.

If you have any questions or to book your registration online, please visit the Workshops Section of this website.

Special Rowell Lecture Event
with Greg Mortenson

Mountain Light is pleased to announce a special Rowell Lecture event, An Evening with Greg Mortenson, a reception and program with the co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and best-selling co-author of Three Cups of Tea as he pays tribute to his friends Galen and Barbara Rowell and discusses his life’s work in promoting education and literacy, especially for girls, in the remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The program will also feature the opening of the nomination period for the 2008 Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure. The Award honors that adventurer whose artistic passion illuminates the wild places of the world, and whose accomplishments significantly benefit both the environment and the peoples who inhabit these lands and regions. Please visit www.RowellAward.com for more information about the Rowell Award.

Bob Hansen, Rowell Legacy Committee member and President of The Yosemite Fund will emcee this special evening.

This event is presented by The Rowell Legacy Committee, The Yosemite Fund and the Commonwealth Club of California.

Date & Location: September 24, 2008 at the Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason Street, San Francisco, Calif.

5:30 – 7:15 p.m. VIP Reception with Greg Mortenson. Includes wine, hors d’oeuvres and preferred program seating, $150.

7:30 p.m. Program: Rowell Lecture with Greg Mortenson. $25 Commonwealth Club members, $35 non-members.

TICKETS: Available on July 10, 2008. Reservations can be made through the Commonwealth Club website, and will be confirmed by email. Tickets will be sold at the door only if space is available.

2008 Fall Exhibit: Landscapes, American Roadside Photographs of Tom Mallonee

Photo © 2008 Tom Mallonnee

The black and white landscapes and American roadside photographs of Tom Mallonee will be featured in Mountain Light's guest artist gallery, August 1st through October 31st, 2008.

TOM MALLONEE has pursued photographic subjects which stray from the conventional notions of western landscape photography, yet still embrace decisive composition and exquisite printing technique. Tom has completed a 12 year portrait of the bypassed sections of Route 66 entitled Evidence of Passing. In recent years, he has been on the cutting edge of fine art monochromatic inkjet printing and has developed a true six-ink Hextone printing process.  In addition to his personal photographic pursuits, he founded Owens Valley Imaging devoted exclusively to producing black & white ink prints for other artists.

For more information, please visit the Featured Artists page.

Newly Mastered Galen Rowell Print Available

AA1245, Arctic Fox near Churchill, Manitoba (Canada, 1993)

While conducting research for specific projects, Mountain Light staff regularly search through Galen’s archive of over two hundred thousand images. Occasionally we come across an original 35mm transparency that we feel is exceptional, and suitable to be added to our fine art print collection. This photo of an arctic fox taken while Galen was stalking polar bears in Canada is one such image.

This original slide was recently drum scanned and then digitally mastered by Mountain Light General Manager Justin Black, and is currently on display in our Gallery and available for purchase through our web site.

Watch this space for announcements of new, previously unreleased Galen Rowell images!

New local artisans featured at
Mountain Light Gallery!

            • Ceramics by Michael Cooke
            • Wooden vessels by Ron Overholz
            • Hand-turned segmented bowls by David Miller
            • Artisan jewelry by Daryl Aukee, Danielle Dublino
               and Leah Dutcher
            • Fine hand-crafted furniture by Steven White

…and more to come!

James Balog 2007 Rowell Award Recipient

Author, adventurer and nature photographer James Balog has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure by the Rowell Award Judging Panel. The award will be presented on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. in San Francisco at the Hotel Nikko. Renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz will be the keynote speaker for the evening. The event is sponsored by the Rowell Legacy Committee and its partners, The Yosemite Fund and the Commonwealth Club of California.

For more information, please visit the Rowell Award website.

Tickets are now available at the Commonwealth Club website.

Rowell Fund for Tibet awards more than
$57,000 to Tibetan projects

An environmental project to protect endangered species, the publication of a science vocabulary book for children and an in-depth investigation of Tibetan maps are among 11 projects chosen by ICT's Rowell Fund to receive grants in 2008. The Rowell Fund Board will award over $57,000 this year to applicants in 5 countries in memory of explorers and photographers Galen and Barbara Rowell.

For more information, please visit the ICT website.

UPDATE: Available Signed Galen Rowell
Prints on Consignment

Valley of Ten Peaks, Banff, Canadian Rockies, Canada, 1973

Catalog # AA0007
Edition # 82/300

Rare and highly collectible, this is a 16 x 20 Dye Transfer print in excellent condition, signed and numbered by the artist in the border of the print and on the mat, and provided with a certificate of authenticity.

The print is presented in a custom solid hardwood cherry frame, double-matted with acid-free 100% cotton museum-grade board, and glazed with 97% UV-blocking anti-reflective museum glass.

Price: $12,500 (does not include shipping). To purchase this print, please CLICK HERE.

Porters at Concordia, Karakoram Himalaya, Pakistan, 1975

Catalog # AA0088
Edition # 8/300

16 x 20 Crystal Archive Lightjet print in excellent condition, signed and numbered by the artist in the border of the print and on the mat. The original certificate of authenticity is intact on the verso of the mat.

The print is presented in a custom solid hardwood frame with ebony stain, double-matted with acid-free 100% cotton museum-grade board, and glazed with 97% UV-blocking anti-reflective museum glass.

Price: $3,750 (does not include shipping). To purchase this print, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please call Mountain Light at (760) 873-7700 or email for more information.

Annie Leibovitz to keynote the
2008 Rowell Lecture in San Francisco

UPDATE: Rescheduled for April 16, 2008.
UPDATE: Location announced, tickets now available.

Noted American portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 Rowell Lecture, scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th at the Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. in San Francisco. A VIP reception begins at 6 p.m., program check-in starts at 6:45 p.m., and the main program itself will run from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Tickets are now available at the Commonwealth Club of California website.

One of the most celebrated photographers of our time, Annie Leibovitz has been making witty, powerful images documenting American popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work began appearing in Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair, and then Vogue, creating a legendary body of work. In addition to her magazine work, Leibovitz has created influential advertising campaigns for American Express, Gap, Givenchy, The Sopranos, and the Milk Board.

A retrospective of her work from the years 1970 to 1990 was presented at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Leibovitz is the recipient of many honors, including the rank of Commandeur in the French government’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Barnard College Medal of Distinction. She was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress in 2000 and one of the thirty-five Innovators of Our Time by Smithsonian magazine in 2005.

Limited Number of Scarce Prints Released

Mountain Light is pleased to announce the release of scarce prints by Galen Rowell that have been unavailable since his 2002 death.

Effective immediately, nine prints (in all sizes) of his famous photograph Machapuchare at dawn, Nepal Himalaya, Nepal (AA0010) and five 16 x 20 prints of Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff, Canadian Rockies, Canada (AA0007) are available for sale. Both are available only as unsigned LightJet prints on Crystal Archive paper.

Machapuchare is available in any of the following sizes:

16 x 20: $3,300 (print only)
20 x 30: $4,300 (print only)
32 x 48: $8,000 (print only)

Valley of the Ten Peaks is once again available in the 16 x 20 size at $2,800 (print only). It continues to be available in the 11 x 14, 20 x 30, and 32 x 48 sizes.

For more information or order these prints, please call the gallery at (760) 873-7700 or email us at .

2008 Calendar: Galen Rowell’s California

The Mountain Light 2008 calendar, Galen Rowell’s California is in stock and shipping now.

This 12-sheet wall calendar features some of Galen’s best images from his home state. The images were hand selected by the Mountain Light staff and include some rarely-seen photographs from the Galen Rowell Collection.

The calendar was designed and produced by June Lee at Morning Dew Productions. For more information and to order yours, click here.

Spring and Fall 2008 Workshops Announced

Photo © 2008 Brenda Tharp

Mountain Light’s 2008 Workshop Schedule was announced recently, and a few of the workshops are already almost sold-out! Act quickly to avoid disappointment.

This year’s program is expanded with more top instructors, and more on-location workshops in four of the West’s premier national parks.

Photo © 2008 Larry Ulrich

The 2008 workshops include:

Larry and Donna Ulrich
April 21-24 “Hidden Yosemite”

Jack Dykinga
April 14-17 • Yosemite (Large Format)
Oct. 20-24 • Boulder Mountain, Utah
Oct. 27-31 • Bryce Canyon–Filling Fast!

John Shaw
May 1-4 • Mountain Light Gallery
Oct. 2-5 • Mountain Light Gallery

David Muench
June 9-13 • Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks–Filling Fast!
June 16-20 • Lake Tahoe–Filling Fast!

Photo © 2008 Justin Black

Justin Black
May 8-11 • Mountain Light Gallery
Sept. 25-28 • Mountain Light Gallery

Brenda Tharp
Oct. 9-12 • Mountain Light Gallery

A 10 percent registration discount will be granted to returning participants who have taken any past workshop operated by Mountain Light. New participants who simultaneously enroll in two workshops are also eligible for a 10 percent discount off both sessions. A 10 percent discount is also available to full-time students, full-time art or photography instructors and members of the North American Nature Photographers’ Association. Please note these discounts are not cumulative and that the maximum available discount on any workshop is 10 percent.

Photo © 2008 David Muench

Each workshop is limited to 15 participants to insure that everyone receives the time and attention needed. We expect these to fill up quickly, please contact us promptly to reserve your space.

If you have any questions or to book your registration online, please visit the Workshops Section of this website.

Mountain Light Shopping Cart Debuts

We have added an e-commerce shopping cart to our website, providing Mountain Light customers with added convenience plus the security of encrypted SSL transactions. Customers will now be presented with an accurate total, including sales tax (if appropriate), and can complete their transactions using their credit card with the peace of mind afforded by using a secure, encrypted server.

The first area of our site to come on line is our Photographic Workshops. Participants may now book a workshop any time of the day or night, conveniently and securely. Book multiple Workshops and review your shopping cart (making changes if necessary) using the convenient “View Cart” link in the Navigation Bar on the left side of every page of the Mountain Light site. Please note that Workshops are booked on a first-come-first-saved basis. In the event that a Workshop is filled prior to your transaction, you will be contacted with options before your card is charged. The same procedure will apply to out-of-stock items from the Gallery, as we add shopping cart capabilities to all other areas of the Mountain Light site.

Look for other areas of the Mountain Light site to come online with our safe and convenient shopping cart soon!

New Filter Available: the LB Warming
Circular Polarizer from Singh-Ray

Mountain Light is excited to announce a new filter: The “lighter, brighter” warming circular polarizer from Singh-Ray! While most circular polarizers absorb two full stops of light, the LB polarizer absorbs only one and a third stops, giving photographers greater creative control to stop action with faster shutter speeds or select greater depth of field with smaller apertures. Greater light transmission also results in a brighter viewfinder image, better autofocus and metering performance in low light, and makes it easier to accurately position graduated neutral density filters when using them in combination with a polarizer.

Mountain Light is stocking the LB warming circular polarizer in the sprocket mount to fit Cokin P series filter holders (the same used with Galen's ND grad filters), and the screw-in version is available via special order in sizes from 52mm to 77mm, with slim-line wide angle versions available in 72mm and 77mm sizes. Visit the Filters page for more information or to order.

Photographer Beth Wald presented
Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure

SAN FRANCISCO — Outdoor photographer Beth Wald was awarded the 2006 Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure by the Rowell Legacy Committee at a ceremony featuring keynote speaker Tom Brokaw in San Francisco on Tuesday, November 28.

The Rowell Award honors that adventurer whose artistic passion illuminates the wild places of the world, and whose accomplishments significantly benefit both the environment and the people who inhabit these lands and regions. The Rowell Award celebrates the accomplishments of famed adventurers and photographers Galen and Barbara Rowell, who died in a plane crash in 2002.

In her photography, Wald combines a thirst for adventure and exploration with a passion for the natural environment and fascination with the world’s diverse cultures. She belongs to that rarified club of photographers who can shuffle lenses, change film and take beautiful pictures in extreme conditions that have most people struggling merely to put one foot in front of the other. “I am drawn to harsh, wild places where life is both fragile and tenuous.” says Wald, “where one’s sense of being alive is heightened by extremes of landscape and weather.”

Her visual exploration of environment and culture has taken her around the globe, from the Arctic to the tip of South America, from Pakistan to Cuba, and from the icy Himalayan peaks to the stifling heat of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Wald’s most recent journeys have taken her into remote regions of Afghanistan and Tajikistan to photograph unique mountain tribes and their relation with wildlife and environment, in order to call attention to the dire threats to both ancient culture and fragile ecosystems.

In this and in much of Wald’s work, her passion is to try to make a difference for the people and places that inspire her. She has donated her time to photograph numerous projects for a wide variety of organizations, including Lighthawk, the Sierra Club, the Conservation Land Trust, Conservacion Patagonica, ANAI, Doctors Without Borders, and others, covering a wide variety of environmental and cultural issues from logging, mining and desertification, to indigenous rights, endangered cultures, and industrial versus locally based agriculture. Through articles, books, and the many talks and lectures she gives, her photography has helped draw attention to clear-cutting in the Western US and in Southern Chile, to the disappearing cultures of the Tarahumara Indians of the Sierra Madre of Mexico to the gauchos of Patagonia to the plight of the people and environment of Afghanistan ravaged by decades of war and drought. She is currently in Afghanistan teaching a course on environmental photojournalism to Afghan journalists.

Wald’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Sports Illustrated, NG Traveler, Travel and Leisure, Life, The New York Times, Men’s Journal and Islands. Her commercial work includes extensive assignments for adventure sportswear companies such as Patagonia, EMS and The North Face. She has collaborated on numerous books, and is currently working on a book project that documents the unique lives of the last of Argentina’s true gauchos.

Wald said she plans to use the $15,000 award to create a new generation of “Galens and Barbaras” in Afghanistan through photojournalism classes.

Todd Skinner, a famed rock climber who died in October in a fall from Yosemite’s Leaning Tower, nominated Wald for the honor. A special tribute was paid to Skinner during the presentation.

Tom Brokaw, the former NBC Nightly News anchor, delivered the keynote speech, “Deleting the Virtual Life” at the standing-room only event. Actor and environmental activist Robert Redford was also in attendance. Both Brokaw and Redford had formed friendships with the Rowells based on their mutual love for adventure and respect for nature.

A scare signed print of Galen Rowell’s classic 1973 photograph, “Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff, Canadian Rockies,” was made available by Mountain Light Gallery during the VIP reception portion of the evening, and sold for $12,500. The proceeds from the sale will be donated by Mountain Light Gallery to support the Rowell Award.

Grand Teton Climb raises $40,000 for
the Rowell Fund for Tibet

A benefit climb, featuring renowned mountain adventurers David Breashears and Jimmy Chin, recently raised $40,000 for the Rowell Fund for Tibet.

Breashears and Chin donated their time and energy to help lead about a dozen people, including one of the “singing nuns of Drapchi prison,” up Wyoming’s 13,770-foot tall Grand Teton. Snow and ice kept the group from reaching the summit on Aug. 26th, however, the majority of participants, including an 11-year-old boy, reached the Enclosure, a 13,000 summit on the north ridge of the Grand Teton.

The success of this climb, guided by Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, and a similar climb in 2005 has organizers already planning for another climb in 2007. For Breashears, the climbs demonstrate a show of solidarity and resolve among those choosing to donate to the Rowell Fund.

“A mountain is a challenge and requires determination and fortitude, and the situation in Tibet is a metaphor for that,” Breashears said in 2005. “The Chinese are a tremendous force in Tibet. They’re fairly immovable and determined, but a determined group of people can take on a foe like that and make a change if they’re resourceful and resilient.”

And few seem as resilient as Ngawang Sangdrol. A member of the Garu Nunnery, Sangdrol was detained and imprisoned in 1992 for peacefully demonstrating against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Her prison term spiked from an initial three-years to a combined sentence of 23 years – a result of several sentence extensions including one for singing songs praising the Dalai Lama. After enormous international pressure, she was released into the International Campaign for Tibet’s care in 2003, and now attends Columbia University, learning English and will probably join ICT‘s staff afterwards. She was nominated for “International Woman of the Year” in 2004 and was featured in the July 2nd issue of Parade magazine.

Breashears filmed the IMAX movie, Everest, has successfully climbed to the summit of Everest five times and co-produced Red Flag over Tibet for Frontline, hailed as one of the best documentaries about Tibet. Participants in this adventure were treated to a special advance screening of Breashears’ new feature documentary about the 1996 Everest tragedy, which will be released this fall.

Alongside Galen Rowell, Conrad Anker and Rick Ridgeway, Chin walked across Tibet in search of the birthing grounds of Tibetan antelope, an expedition which was featured in National Geographic. He is a professional adventure photographer, and photographed the Teton trip.

The Rowell Fund for Tibet was established in memory of photographer Galen Rowell and his wife Barbara, who died in a chartered plane crash in 2002. Rowell’s photography documented the struggles of the Tibetan people, and he had close ties with many in the Jackson climbing community, where the benefit climb was based.

The Rowell Fund, administered by the ICT, was established to encourage and support the work of Tibetans in the language and visual arts who can make significant contributions to Tibetan culture and society. Each year the Rowell fund gives small grants to those striving to meet these goals. This year more than 30 people have applied for funding. Winners of the grants will be announced later this year.

For more information or to make a donation or pledge, please click here.

New images added to fine print collection

Mountain Light is pleased to announce the addition of eleven Galen Rowell images to its Fine Print collection. The additions, which span different points in Galen’s career, include three images from California’s High Sierra, two from Antarctica, and one each from Alaska, Arizona, Canada, Siberia, Tibet and Zimbabwe.

The images include: Spring break-up on Lake Baikal, Siberia, 1987 (AA0422); Red foxes near Chenik Lagoon, Alaska Peninsula, Alaska, 1991 (AA0619); Sunrise on Kangbochen (23,933 ft.) from Pekhu Tso, Tibet, 1988 (AA0648); Emperor penguin leaping the ice edge, Riiser-Larsen Colony, Weddell Sea, Antarctica, 1993 (AA0835); Victoria Falls at sunset from the air, Zambezi River, Zimbabwe, 1994 (AA0861); Sunrise at Padres Buttes, Lake Powell Arizona, 2000 (AA1069); Autumn mist over the Barrens, headwaters of the Thelon River, Northwest Territories, Canada, 1998 (AA1093); Wild seas of the Drake Passage to Antarctica, 2002 (AA1215); Winter sunrise on Basin Mountain from the air, Eastern Sierra, California, 2002 (AA1223); Sunset on El Capitan from Higher Cathedral Rock, Yosemite National Park, California, 1990 (AA1228); Sunrise on the Eastern Sierra over Owens Valley ranchland, California, 2000 (AA1244).

Eight of the images appear in the new book, Galen Rowell: A Retrospective, available now exclusively through Mountain Light until its official bookstore release on October 1st.

Scarce, signed Galen Rowell prints released
for Rowell Legacy Project fundraising sale

Two scarce, signed fine art prints by the late wilderness photographer Galen Rowell are being released for sale for the first time since his death.

The prints are Rowell’s Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff, Canadian Rockies, Canada, 1973 and Stormy sunset over Evolution Lake, John Muir Trail, High Sierra, California, 1997. Each Crystal Archive Lightjet print is matted and framed, and features Rowell’s signature on the lower right side of the mat. Each print is being sold for $12,500.

Valley of the Ten Peaks has an image area of 13" x 19.5" on 16" x 20" paper and a matted size of 22" x 28". This is the first time the image has been available in this size, signed or unsigned, since Rowell’s 2002 death.

Stormy sunset over Evolution Lake has an image area of 20" x 30" on 24" x 32" paper and a matted size of 28" x 38". During his lifetime, Rowell signed only 51 prints in this edition of 300, which includes all prints 20" x 30" and larger.

The release of these prints kicks off a series of events leading to the fall 2006 publication of the definitive volume on Galen Rowell’s life and legacy as one of the most important photographers, mountaineers and conservationists of the 20th Century. The collector-quality large format book, published by the Sierra Club Books, will feature more than 200 of Rowell’s most important photographs made over three decades, as well as essays by luminaries in the diverse fields that Rowell touched. Simultaneous exhibits at the Oakland Museum, the San Diego Museum of Natural History, Banff’s Whyte Museum and the Panopticon Gallery in Boston will accompany the book’s release.

All proceeds from the sale of the scarce prints will go to fund the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure and the annual Rowell Lecture Series at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. Former NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor, Tom Brokaw, will be the featured speaker for the Rowell Lecture Series, which will be held on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 28 in San Francisco. Mr. Brokaw has graciously contributed the foreword to the upcoming Rowell book.

The new owners of these prints, unless they choose to remain anonymous, will be recognized at the event for their contribution to the Rowell Award.

The Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure honors adventurers whose artistic passion illuminates the wild places of the world, and whose accomplishments significantly benefit both the environment and the people who inhabit these lands and regions.

The scarce prints are on display now at Mountain Light Gallery.

For information about the release of the scarce prints or purchase inquiries, please call Mountain Light Gallery at (760) 873-7700. For information about the Rowell Award, please visit www.rowellaward.com.

New Galen Rowell retrospective book

Available now from Mountain Light!

On Aug. 23rd, what would have been adventure photographer Galen Rowell’s 66th birthday, Bishop’s Mountain Light Gallery received a special gift: Its first shipment of a new volume published by Sierra Club Books, Galen Rowell: A Retrospective.

This is the definitive survey of the life, career, and legacy of the world’s foremost adventure photographer, who made the Eastern Sierra his home. The 288-page hardcover book is available now at the gallery.

Galen Rowell was the archetypal adventure photographer, his iconic images published in leading magazines and scores of books, exhibited in major galleries, and cherished by fans ranging from the Dalai Lama to news anchor Tom Brokaw. When he and his wife and business partner, Barbara Cushman Rowell, perished in a charter plane crash in 2002, he had just completed a landmark assignment for National Geographic and had begun making stunning new images of his favorite old haunts in the Sierra Nevada.

Fortunately, his productivity was immense and his photographs meticulously archived, making possible this unique and comprehensive retrospective of his work. Rowell himself had no time for looking back: his creative energies went into books that combine his images and writings on a wide range of subjects including climbing and expeditionary feats; exotic cultures; endangered wildlife and places; celebrations of light, color, and rare natural phenomena; and visionary interpretations of landscape.

Galen Rowell: A Retrospective features 188 of Rowell’s best photographs representing all phases and dimensions of his career. The images were chosen by the editors with whom Rowell worked most closely, by Mountain Light General Manager / Curator / Photographer Justin Black, and by Rowell’s daughter Nicole Rowell Ryan. Production was overseen by Black and Ryan. Photographic reproductions were produced to the highest standards of lithography from digital masters of Rowell’s 35mm transparencies, many of which were newly prepared by Black for the volume.

Complementing and illuminating the photographs are essays and commentaries by Rowell’s family and associates from the worlds of mountaineering, conservation, photography and publishing. They include photographers Sir Frans Lanting and David Muench; mountaineers Doug Robinson, Conrad Anker, Rick Ridgeway and Gordon Wiltsie; preeminent field biologist Dr. George Schaller; climbing historian Steve Roper; president of The Yosemite Fund Bob Hansen; president of the International Campaign for Tibet John Ackerly and Outdoor Photographer magazine publisher Steve D. Werner. Contributions also came from Ryan and Black as well as from Rowell’s son, Tony, and from Dean Stevens, Mountain Light Photography’s Photo Licensing Manager.

Former NBC Nightly News Managing Editor and Anchor Tom Brokaw wrote the book’s foreword. Novelist Robert Roper provided an in-depth biographical introduction and former New York Times photography critic Andy Grundberg contributed a critical appreciation of Rowell’s work.

Coinciding with the book’s official release will be a series of special museum exhibits, spotlighting rarely seen photographs that appear in the retrospective. The first exhibit will be at the San Diego Museum of Natural History, Sept. 16th through Nov. 12th. Ryan will give a presentation on developing the book during the exhibit’s opening day.

A second exhibit is scheduled for November at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Other exhibit dates will be released as they are confirmed.

This special exhibition will be on display at Mountain Light Gallery starting Nov. 1st and running through April 2007. A public reception is being planned for November. Details will be made available at a later date.

For more information about the exhibits or the book, Galen Rowell: A Retrospective, call Mountain Light Gallery, at (760) 873-7700, or visit the Mountain Light Book Store.

Mt. Whitney Climb Raises $38,000 for the Rowell Fund for Tibet

Photo © 2008 Tony Rowell

On June 16, a team of climbers supporting the Rowell Fund for Tibet summitted Mount Whitney (14,496 ft.) via the snow covered and physically challenging Mountaineer’s Route. Five donor / climbers and two climbers sponsored by anonymous donors raised $38,000 for the Rowell Fund, which was established to encourage and support the work of Tibetans in the language and visual arts who can make significant contributions to Tibetan culture and society. The team was accompanied by renowned climbers Conrad Anker and Peter Croft, John Ackerly, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, Justin Black, Mountain Light’s General Manager, and Tony Rowell, Galen’s son. Excellent guiding services were provided by “S.P.” Parker of Sierra Mountain Center.

Photo © 2008 Tony Rowell

Another team, named Team Highpoint by leader John Jancik of Colorado, hiked the grueling main Mt. Whitney Trail to the summit, arriving just as the Mountaineer’s Route team topped out on the North Face. Starting with Mt. Whitney, Team Highpoint is committed to reach the highest point in each of the fifty United States within one calendar year. Their effort, called 50 for Tibet, is also a fundraiser for the Rowell Fund for Tibet, and to date Team Highpoint has received pledges of over $100,000 if they complete their mission, culminating on Alaska’s Denali in May 2007.

For more information or to make a donation or pledge, please click here.

U.S. Postal Service Unveils
Galen Rowell Stamp for 2006

Breathtaking photographs from the nation’s National Park system, including Galen Rowell’s Winter Sunset, Gates of the Valley will appear as part of the U. S. Postal Service’s 2006 definitive stamp program.

In announcing the program, David Failor, Executive Director of Stamp Services, also released images of other 2006 stamp and stationery items. “Customers can share a glimpse of America’s beautiful National Park system when corresponding internationally,” said Failor, referring to photographs of the Great Smoky Mountain, Yosemite Valley and Bryce Canyon depicted on international rate stamps.

Yosemite National Park, California (84-cent int’l. letter rate)

This international rate stamp in the Scenic American Landscapes series features a photograph of the Gates of the Valley in Yosemite National Park, taken by Galen Rowell. Text on the stamp reads, “Yosemite National Park, California.”

Established on October 1, 1890, the park consists of 747,956 acres in the Sierra Nevada. With the impressive Yosemite Valley as its centerpiece, the park includes a breathtaking range of geographical features, such as waterfalls, lakes, glaciers, expansive meadows, groves of giant sequoias and granite monoliths such as El Capitan and Half Dome.

Each year nearly four million people enjoy the spectacular sights of Yosemite. Approximately 800 miles of marked trails can be found in the park. Nearly 95 percent of Yosemite is designated wilderness.