"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
Uniced? Thanks for posting - very interesting! For those who enjoy landscape photography, Washburn's book called "Mountain Photographs" is well worth getting. Good reproductions. Another great book of aerial photographs is called "Aerial Photographs," by William Garnett. His images are more abstract than Washburn's.
Not an aerial camera, but Mummery's camera famously melted out of an Everest glacier 75 years later. And John, you no doubt recall how a missing WWII fighter melted out Mendel glacier awhile back, right up there beside Mt Darwin. Now the mere existence of that glacier is right on the brink.
As for Washburn, he is right up there with Garnett as one the best aerial photo-composition makers ever. But now, if you want outdoorsy attention, it's all about cliff-jumping in a bat-suit, wearing a GoPro camera, with the very last thing seen being a big red splat. That opportunity simply wasn't available to those like Washburn, who mastered black and white film instead.
Interesting how the cache is going to help glacier research
Yeah... like figuring out everything is going to melt out pretty soon, since little or none of a glacier will be left. Some of the ones I set foot and ice axe upon as recently as twenty-five years ago are now already totally gone. Another 25 year from now, not a single glacier in the US Rockies, Sierra Nevada, or even Alps in Europe might still remain, at the rate things are melting. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, if you can excuse an unfunny solemn pun.
The article did not say why this is the "Holy Grail" can someone explain?
Probably because Bradford Washburn is a legend of aerial photography, and of even Alaska mountain activity itself. He used all kinds of cameras, including some massive precision aerial ones.
He was kinda baked-in to the core group of Natl Geographic explorers as well as the scientific community. But from an artistic standpoint, his shots speak for themselves.
The first aerial camera is somewhat important in some sense, I would imagine.
Thanks, but I'd rather just watch:
Large format: http://flickr.com/michaeldarnton
Mostly 35mm: http://flickr.com/mdarnton
You want digital, color, etc?: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stradofear
It isn't even the first. Decades after the first.Originally Posted by mdarnton
Wait a second, they had aerial cameras in the first WW, and were used from balloons/kites earlier... First!?!! ;(
Steve K
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