Well, he was prolific, and did in fact publish quite a bit of 35mm work. But in the
heyday of his and his father's sucess, 4x5 was the norm for published stock nature
photography. But to this day, I consider him a snapshooter, even with a view camera, and an addict to sticky-sweet easily marketable stereotypes. That whole
gooey mentality has now gone overboard, with super-saturated digital make-believe
concoctions starting to dominate the scenic genre, and making even people like
Meunch look tasteful. I had just come down from Sabrina basin with my backpacking
friend the other day (who shoots digital), and of course, at the intersection one runs
into the Mtn Light Gallery. My friend, who is just a beginner photographer, looked at
just three big prints and stated, "Man, this stuff looks fake. How do they get away
with it?" One of the image was conspicuously a composite. Muench, at least, knew
how to make natural color look natural, even if his compositions were so predictable
that they could make Lawrence Welk snore.
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