Publisher's Synopsis
The Legacy of Wildness: The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum is the first major retrospective of a world-renowned landscape photographer whose artistry is equalled only by his commitment to the environment. To activist photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum, art and advocacy go hand in hand. Whether depicting the rugged grandeur of the American countryside or the mournful beauty of virgin wilderness violated by progress, his landscapes reject sentimentality. Instead, they document his deep respect and compassion for our irreplaceable natural resources. Ketchum was the only United States artist selected for a one-man exhibition at the UNCED Earth Summit in Rio. He has received the United Nations Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award for his photographs of deforestation, pollution, and mismanagement of public lands. Honored with the Sierra Club's coveted Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography, he currently serves as the Curator of Photography for the National Parks Foundation in Washington, D.C. His book The Tongass: Alaska's Vanishing Rain Forest was instrumental in educating government officials and the public about the environmental degradation of the Alaskan rain forest and helped enact the Timber Reform Act. Ketchum's experience of landscape as environment - both in the ecological sense and as the aggregate of circumstances and conditions that confront the outdoor photographer - is as varied and unique as his titles suggest. His first series, "Twilight, " begun in 1972, deals with cliche subjects such as fall foliage and scenic views. Here, Ketchum introduces a new hierarchy where pure color is the subject of the image. "Winters: 1970-1980" consists of black-and-whitephotographs of white-on-white environments. The images are vaporous, ghostly and haiku-like. "Order from Chaos, " large-size photographs in overwhelmingly brilliant colors, marks the beginning of Ketchum's environmental work. The Hudson River and the Highlands, The Tongass: Alaska's V
