Some of his best landscape prints took years to produce. His photography is not about serendipitous "found" imaging, nor documenting a scene you were likely to

Some of his best landscape prints took years to produce. His photography is not about serendipitous "found" imaging, nor documenting a scene you were likely to see with your own eyes. Those romantic and dramatic landscapes existed in his mind, and I really mean he produced the images. He used the wilderness and environment like set pieces for studio work, and also manipulated the exposures and printing quite a bit to get some of the dramatic lighting. His technical skill was only one part of what made his art. His patience and deep familiarity with the land was also essential. He traveled the same areas repeatedly, imagined a composition, and returned later to get the season, weather, and light the way he wanted. Many return visits were not as fruitful as hoped, since nature doesn't have a reservation system. These urban photos seem more journalistic in nature. Not only was his time compressed for the work, the nature of the subject lacks the permanence to pre-visualize a composition and return to capture it at a more ideal time.