THE LARGE FORMAT CHOICE

CLIMB  MAGAZINE

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ISSUE   February 2012

The best images from the world’s leading climbing photographers

Greenshires Publishing, Leicester, UK
http://www.climbmagazine.com/

This issue contains a collection of photographs that are mostly of spectacular ice and rock face ascents. There are also five articles by climbing photographers discussing their priorities and successes. From the early days of rock climbing climbers and photographers have interacted and shared their activities. David Pickford, the editor of the volume, remarks: Climbs and photographs enable us to imagine the world differently.

Although the work shown emphasizes the climbers, the world seen from a climb is beautifully illustrated by a near 180 degree panorama taken from Glyder Fach in the Ogwen Valley, North Wales by David Simmonite. There are wisps of cloud. There is the rich green of the treeless moorland. An ice-scooped tarn lies close to the edge of a hanging valley and a stony trail leads from the valley below, up from the exposed edge of the tarn and swings rightwards to rocky outcrops and a high shoulder as if it would skirt the exposure of the greater heights in making its way to another valley. In the far distance there is a trace of light that could be the sea.  

Gearing Up by Tom Richardson
Cameras for Climbers, pp 68-71


In addition to the above pictures and essays, Tom Richardson, a mountaineer, photographer, trek leader and forthcoming author of a memoir Judgment Days, has provided a section on the different choices of cameras and equipment to be encountered in this rapidly changing world. By way of illustration, he devotes paragraphs to four persons: Tom himself, James Thacker, David Pickford and me. The last paragraph is as follows:

      KEN
      HANSON

A retired research biochemist, mountaineer, and published photographer, Ken’s choice of photographic equipment may not be to everyone’s taste, but there is no doubt that he can produce beautiful results. Ken began mountaineering when he retired and during a dozen trips to the Himalayas captured them using an old fashioned basic Toyo 4 x 5 view camera (ABOVE TOP) with a black fabric hood – the camera mounted on a sturdy wooden tripod. You can’t get much further away from today’s point and shoot cameras, but patience is a virtue in photography and Ken’s results are simply breathtaking. Check out the pictures in his book Himalayan Portfolios – Journeys of the Imagination to see the results for yourself. Link■

To read this was a great surprise!

ALSO, ANOTHER JOURNAL

VOLUME 30, # 1-2. Published October 2011

Limbu Woman, Taplejung District, Eastern Nepal. Kenneth Hanson

Photograph page 2 (facing the Editorial Page)