Question Time

The photograph documents the question time after my talk on The Making of Himalayan Portfolios at the Large Format meeting in Springfield MA on March 29 (see blog, March 9; photo by Marie Curtis). An account of this event, together with the above picture, is contained in the March/April issue of VIEW CAMERA (p 57). In the talk I recounted the evolution of my book from a gallery exhibit through the design process and essay writing to the epic struggle to achieve the best possible duotone printing.

The slide seen as a wall projection to the left in the photograph was added as a grace note. The original photograph, seen by me last year, is in the Darjeeling Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (founded by By Tenzing Norgay). It shows Oliver Wheeler, age 31, together with his two Tibetan assistants, on the 1921 Everest Reconnaissance Expedition. He was seconded to the expedition as a photographer and surveyor by the Survey of India because of his experience with photo-surveying. The caption says that he is posed with a plate camera. That would be consistent with the idea that the camera was for survey use. In the course of his map making Wheeler discovered the East Rongbuck Glacier. Mallory’s climbing group had hiked right past the junction. Later Wheeler became Surveyor General of India.

One question remains: how did the picture captions in VIEW CAMERA get switched!