Why does the US seem to produce LF photographers?

[GPS]

"There is no wilderness in Europe". Boy, go to Sweden, Norway, Finland. Don't get lost, though...

[tim atherton]

"There is no wilderness in Europe".

ever been to Iceland...?

[Kirk Gittings]

I think the relevant point is not where there is wilderness, but the historic fact that wilderness is a part of the national character here in the US (even if one never goes there).

[GPS]

So is on Iceland, in Sweden or elsewhere in Scandinavia.

[Paddy Quinn]

I think the relevant point is not where there is wilderness, but the historic fact that wilderness is a part of the national character here in the US (even if one never goes there).

Something all the Nordic nations also claim, along with Canada - a sometime nordic nation (and, in my exporience, Australia as well).

The fact that there apears to be such a relationship between national character and wilderness isn't unique. The particualr nature of the relatioship may or may not be unique (and in many areas I'm not so sure it is) - but it's the nature of it which might be somewhat different

[Ralph Barker]

I agree with both Kirk's statement and Paddy's expansion of it. I think the relationship between a culture and its surroundings is fairly universal. Whether the nature of the surroundings prompts photography that promotes the selection of large format cameras to capture or express that relationship is a separate matter, I suppose.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Since we mentioned Ansel Adams and Jacques-Henri Lartigue I assume that most of us know the 'Making Of' by Saint Ansel and have in mind his portrait of Lartigue.

Saint Ansel was invited to Arles, south of France but except food in the train he felt definitely uncomfortable and suffered from heat. A paradox for somebody who could be considerered as a prominent propagandist of the US South West.

Reading this page I was amazed to learn that Saint Ansel, unlike Saint Brendan who certainly reached Iceland on his curragh and, may be, reached the New World, well, Saint Ansel does not seem to have traveled outside the Fifty States so often.
Strange situation when you consider the distance between Carmel and Denali NP, or between Carmel and Hawai, but did he actually ever travel to continental Europe except for the invitation by Lartigue ?

Strange that he was not inspired by Provence, but Arles is located in a special part of Provence, and probably he had no free time to travel and explore on this occasion.

And as far as deserts are concerned, well Europe cannot compete in terms of dry-hot deserts with other places in the World --at least for today--, but Spain offers a reasonable amount of dry & hot space, enough to make a decent background for some famous Italian "Western" movies ;-);-)

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

"There is no wilderness in Europe".

An interesting question. Sure we could include Svalbard as well.
Traditionally we Europeans used to learn that Europe extends eastbound to the Ural mountains in Russia.
This definitely offers some space available for true wilderness.
A difficult question raised to me by a Californian friend was : are there any real wild forests in Europe, i.e. forests that have never been cropped, re-forested and exploited like French forests for example.
My understanding is, if we do not take Russian and some parts of the Scandinavian forests into account, Poland and central south-central Europe still have some wild forests that have never been cropped. But definitely there is a major difference here with Northern America, at least for Western Europeans, landscape = landscape re-arranged by man and this makes a great impact on how we see the landscape in photography.
If we consider Iceland, wild places where I'm the most impressed there, are not necessarily the absolute Icelandic Wilderness like the top of Vatnajökull glacier, what is fascinating is when you imagine that people have lived in remote places like the North-West fjords for more than thousand years. But so did the Native Americans in their wilderness as well...

[Helcio Tagliolatto]

"Saint Ansel was invited to Arles, south of France but except food in the train he felt definitely uncomfortable and suffered from heat. A paradox for somebody who could be considerered as a prominent propagandist of the US South West."

Emmanuel, the American Southwest climate is VERY different from the South of France.
I can remmember Saint Adams disclaiming the "humid climate and the dullness of the sky" a typical condition of the hot and humid locations.

Even when hot, the skies in the US Southwest are imense.....

[Dan Fromm]

Helcio, it depends on what one means by the Southwest, and when one is there. I remember vividly a day at Enchanted Rock SNA in Texas. Rainy, low ceiling, the air wasn't transmitting light very well at all. Nice diffused subdued illumination and no way to use it.

Cheers,