Philip Hyde

[steve simmons]

Longtime landscape photographer Philip Hyde passed away recently. For those of us over 45 many of us grew up on his books for the Sierra Club. He was in his 80s.

steve simmons

[Merg Ross]

Thanks, Steve. Not unanticipated news, but sad to hear. He was one of the best and his work will always be with us. For those who did not grow up on his books, Phil was a master at printing black and white.

[Keith Fleming]

News of his death is sad news indeed. I cannot begin to count the hours I spent as a young Marine poring over the base library's copies of his work. It was my intro to large format photography, and the strength of Philip Hyde's work has remained with me. He certainly could photograph the landscape with a kindly eye. Tonight, I will again go through my battered copies of "Slickrock" and "The Last Redwoods" and honor his contributions. My sympathies go out to his family--and I include the large format community in that category.

Keith Fleming

[chris jordan]

Slickrock is the book that inspired me to start photographing. There was a copy on one of the tables in my law school library and I picked it up one day, three weeks into the first year of law school. Two weeks later I was in Canyonlands National Park on a 10-day "fall break" photographing trip with my new Nikon FM2 trying to take pictures that looked like the ones in Slickrock. My pictures all stunk, but that's where it started for me. Rest in Peace, Phillip my friend. You rocked my world.

~cj

[Kirk Gittings]

As my son said recently after the recent death of my mother (the last of my kids grandparents) "You guys are the elders of the family now". A scary thought. This is increasingly true in photography also. May we live up to the standards of such wonderful mentors as Philip Hyde, a true inspiration.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Kirk - my condolences on your mother, I hope you and your family are doing well.

Philipe Hyde has left a wonderful legacy in his art and we will benefit from it for many years to come. I hope the "next" generation will continue to learn and be inspired by his work and will not forget the contributions he ( and Porter, Adams, Weston, White, and others) have made.

Thanks for the post Steve.