I decided to take a brief break from the photo-secesisonists today to look at some O’Keefe and read a bit in Galen Rowell’s Retrospective.  First, I was surprised at how unimpressed I was with Galen’s work at the beginning of his career.  It seems fairly documentary at a very basic level.  However, as his work progresses it started to take on an almost impressionistic, dream-state, kind of feel.  Second, I found a really compelling story about a trip he took with Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Rick Ridgeway.  Ridgeway recounts it in an aside in the book entitled “The Difference Between Looking and Seeing.”  I copy it below interspersed with a couple photos from last week.

“We stopped in front of a large print of several basaltic rocks with smooth, faceted faces.  The black rocks were huge gemstones rising Stonehenge-like out of the flat hardpan.  We were silent for perhaps a full minute before we began to comment on how this image, unique among the others Galen had made during our expedition, seemed somehow to capture the wild power of the northwest Chang Tang — the only remaining corner of the Tibetan plateau as yet unoccupied by human beings.  We also noted how quintessentially a Galen Rowell photograph that it was recognizable as his, in the way that a painting by Picasso or Miro doesn’t need to be attributed to the artist.

“But where did he take it?” Jimmy asked.  ”I was wondering the same thing,” Conrad responded.  ”I don’t remember seeing those rocks, do you, Rick?”  ”No, and I’ve been trying to retrace the trip in my mind,” I said.  ”I can’t place them.”  ”It’s not like we didn’t all walk by them,” Jimmy added.  ”We were together the whole trip.”

“That’s the thing isn’t it,” I replied.  ”We all walked by them.”

Conrad said, “But only Galen saw them.”