Best Death Valley photographer?

[Drew Wiley]

Good ole Badwater. All that alkalai dust and clay getting into your gear on a windy March
day. Last time I was there it was filled with a lake thirty miles long with kayaks in it. Rare
sight from up on Augeberry Pt.

[Henry Larson]

I second Ansel!!

[Uri A]

These and the above images are just scans of my older 16x20 silver gelatin prints from 4x5 negatives...non of my more recent 8x10 work )pt/pd and carbon).

That's a damn fine photograph you made there, Vaughn!!

[Uri A]

To ask "who is the best photographer" of any region is in most cases misguided. Photographers that get their work printed and praised in magazines or put up in notable galleries are sometimes not those that have done the best work in a region but rather those with the best media and business connections. The business end of photography has always been a significant wall to many landscape photographers especially color photographers. Currently with the rise of the Internet and digital cameras, the whole marketing and media side of photography is in constant changing and evolving chaos. But even before the modern era there have always been many talented artists much less photographers that were ignored by the powers that be. Another issue is many long time large format photographers have years of work that only a small fraction of which probably ever gets in front of the public. Additionally there has never been a structure or forum for photographers to have their work compared with similar work of others even for places like Yosemite Valley.

Thus a better question might be what and where are some of the better publicly viewable large format images of Death Valley.

Tru Dat also..

[Vaughn]

That's a damn fine photograph you made there, Vaughn!!

Thanks. My original point, probably lost in the translation, was that we all should be our own favorite photographer.

[Bill Burk]

Did I mention the hyper-color issue?

--Darin

Why have a hyper-color issue? Following this thread I found a photographer who does that, but with a consistent quality and style that I can learn to appreciate.

This is the second time the past month I had to change _what_ I appreciate to include new people who I have come to appreciate. It's a weird feeling.

[Darin Boville]

Why have a hyper-color issue? Following this thread I found a photographer who does that, but with a consistent quality and style that I can learn to appreciate.

This is the second time the past month I had to change _what_ I appreciate to include new people who I have come to appreciate. It's a weird feeling.

Nothing wrong with appreciating new things--I do it all the time. What I am looking for is to learn of photographers shooting in the desert who's work sort of captures the sense of place of Death Valley and other deserts. Putting aside all other issues, when I look at most Death Valley photographs I don't get that sense of place. Thus my effort here to widen the search.

--Darin

[KenM]

Barnbaum. Love him or hate him, he's made some amazing images in DV.

[Vaughn]

...Putting aside all other issues, when I look at most Death Valley photographs I don't get that sense of place. Thus my effort here to widen the search.

--Darin

Just curious, while just a limited selection, how do my images I posted measure up in achieving a "sense of place"? Feel free to be cruel! Perhaps on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being strongly giving a sense of place...if you do not wish to go into any detail.

And of course, feel free to decline...but it would also help define for us as what you might think is a representation of a sense of place

Vaughn

[Drew Wiley]

Hyper-color generally means someone never photographed a place at all. They invented a
fictitious scene, typically with Fauxtoshop. Other than strong dawn or sunset light, Death
Valley is a remarkably difficult place to find a color film for. Many of those rare mineral colors are extremely difficult to reproduce. I know of hidden places in Death Valley where
the hues of the rocks are almost unbelievable, but which seem to evade every color film
out there. Doesn't mean you won't bag some really wonderful color shots in the place,
of course. But there is a reason why most of the classic work has been done in b&w.