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Yosemite Once Removed: Portraits of the Backcountry
Photographs by Claude Fiddler, Essays by Steve Roper, Nancy Fiddler, Anne Macquarie, John Hart and Doug Robinson. Stunning photographs and essays that focus on the territory beyond the roads and beaten paths of Yosemite.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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April 17, 2009
What I expected to enjoy about this book: glorious nature photography of "the other Yosemite", beyond the Valley and the road.
What I did enjoy about this book: essays about the history of Yosemite, and personal reflections on the meaning of the Yosemite backcountry and wilderness.
Yosemite's most accomplished climbers have an almost-annoying habit of becoming very accomplished at whatever endeavors they move on to next: Galen Rowell became a world-renowned photographer, Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia, Ray Jardine invented climbing camming devices and revolutionized techniques in multiple outdoor sports, Daniel Duane became a successful writer... and Claude Fiddler is definitely among the realm of Yosemite's most accomplished climbers, so I was excited to order Yosemite Once Removed, a coffee-table book of Fiddler's photography of Yosemite's backcountry. While Yosemite Valley is (over-?) represented in nature photography, the rest of the enormous park, particularly the lovely alpine regions in the east, are not seen nearly as often. I spent a good part of my 20's in this area of clean granite, thin air and astonishing light, and now that I'm older and it's harder to just drop everything and go, I wanted something to remind me of the beauty of that realm.
Alas, after reading it -- a couple of times -- I can't say that this book can do that. Fiddler's images, which he proudly proclaims as being so carefully thought out that he's made fewer than 100 compositions in 19 years, are often unclear: I can't figure out what he's aiming at. In the 'Photographer's Notes' he claims that he wanted to avoid a book of 50 sunset photos, but at times it certainly feels like that's what we wound up with. A defense could be that he was aiming for the subtleties of the backcountry, not just the matinee views that you can't help but notice, but in that case, my personal thought is that he erred too far towards subtle. Too many images edge towards monochromatic, too many images are dark, too many images celebrate the fading light at the end of the day.
Don't get me wrong, there are beautiful images in here (that's why it gets three stars), but as a celebration of the beauty of the backcountry, this doesn't come close to the Yosemite I know.
The essays, on the other hand, normally just an opportunity to fill up space between photographs, are well-written and often more compelling than the photography they supposedly complement.
What I did enjoy about this book: essays about the history of Yosemite, and personal reflections on the meaning of the Yosemite backcountry and wilderness.
Yosemite's most accomplished climbers have an almost-annoying habit of becoming very accomplished at whatever endeavors they move on to next: Galen Rowell became a world-renowned photographer, Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia, Ray Jardine invented climbing camming devices and revolutionized techniques in multiple outdoor sports, Daniel Duane became a successful writer... and Claude Fiddler is definitely among the realm of Yosemite's most accomplished climbers, so I was excited to order Yosemite Once Removed, a coffee-table book of Fiddler's photography of Yosemite's backcountry. While Yosemite Valley is (over-?) represented in nature photography, the rest of the enormous park, particularly the lovely alpine regions in the east, are not seen nearly as often. I spent a good part of my 20's in this area of clean granite, thin air and astonishing light, and now that I'm older and it's harder to just drop everything and go, I wanted something to remind me of the beauty of that realm.
Alas, after reading it -- a couple of times -- I can't say that this book can do that. Fiddler's images, which he proudly proclaims as being so carefully thought out that he's made fewer than 100 compositions in 19 years, are often unclear: I can't figure out what he's aiming at. In the 'Photographer's Notes' he claims that he wanted to avoid a book of 50 sunset photos, but at times it certainly feels like that's what we wound up with. A defense could be that he was aiming for the subtleties of the backcountry, not just the matinee views that you can't help but notice, but in that case, my personal thought is that he erred too far towards subtle. Too many images edge towards monochromatic, too many images are dark, too many images celebrate the fading light at the end of the day.
Don't get me wrong, there are beautiful images in here (that's why it gets three stars), but as a celebration of the beauty of the backcountry, this doesn't come close to the Yosemite I know.
The essays, on the other hand, normally just an opportunity to fill up space between photographs, are well-written and often more compelling than the photography they supposedly complement.
Displaying 1 of 1 review