Ithaka Bound

Shout out to Bruce Barnbaum

To end FOTO Week with a bang, I thought I’d tell you about one of America’s greatest photographers, Bruce Barnbaum. Bruce’s breath-taking black and white landscape photography takes up where Ansel Adams left off and soars in brilliant new directions.

I met Bruce when I took a workshop he was offering at his home in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, and I feel very privileged to be able to call him a friend.

Bruce’s excellence in landscape photography stems from his reverence for the American west and his 30 years of work as an environmental advocate.  Not more than two weeks go by without my receiving an e-mail from Bruce in which he takes up one of the plethora of environmental and climate issues facing the world.  He usually includes a letter that he’s sending to the New York Times, or his Congressperson or the the White House, and he urges everyone on his e-mail list to do the same.  He is truly tireless in his environmental work and has remained focused and resolute despite the overwhelming magnitude of the problems we face.

Bruce has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in mathematics from UCLA and worked for several years as a mathematical analyst and computer programmer for missile guidance systems until he abruptly left that line of work in 1970 and picked up photography as a profession.  He’s been at the top of American photography since then, and one of the world’s finest dark room printers.

If you ever get a chance to see his work in person, I urge you to do so.  Its the only way you’ll truly be able to fully appreciate the beautiful tonality of his prints.  And if you should ever have the opportunity to take one of his workshops, then you should leap at the chance  (I wish I could take the Machu Pichu workshop!).  I learned more in one week of working with Bruce than I did in all my prior photographic studies combined.  I’ve since turned to digital photography but the same principles apply and I’m still working on implementing everything I learned in his workshop.

Make sure to check out his website, linked to his name above.  Settle in with a cup of coffee and plan on a long visit.  You won’t be sorry.

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