The Art of Adventure

Wild horses thunder across the Patagonian plain...Disheartened climbers retreat from the stormy face of Everest...Buddhist pilgrims fine nirvana in the shadow of a sacred peak...A rainbow touches the golden rooftops of a Tibetan palace...Four men trek 285 agonizing miles across the magnificent isolation of the Karakoram Himalaya in winter...A hungry hyena stalks flamingoes at Ngorongoro Crater in Kenya.

Nearly five decades ago, a restless auto-shop owner left behind his socket wrenches and grease stains, and faced the future armed with a camera, a few promising pictures and a profound love of high, wild places. The Art of Adventure is a retrospective of the 20-year odyssey of Galen Rowell, one of America’s pre-eminent adventurer-photographers. Along the way, there are wild stories to tell, sharp insights to share and exotic geographies to explore. Like no other photographer of his generation, Rowell has captured the romance of wilderness and the excitement of adventure travel.

Born in 1940, Rowell sold his auto repair shop in 1972 to devote his life to mountaineering and photography. A year later he won the first of many assignments from National Geographic. He became prolific with both pen and camera, publishing books and scores of magazine articles, prior to his tragic death, along with his wife Barbara, in an airplane accident.

Ever on the move, Rowell made more than 1000 climbs on four continents and participated in over 40 major expeditions around the world. His photographic work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the US and abroad, including the International Center of Photography and the California Academy of Sciences. In 1984 he received the Ansel Adams Award for his contribution to the art of wilderness photography. Photographs of ascents of Fitz Roy, Everest, McKinley, his Karakoram ski traverse in Pakistan, and free-climbing in Yosemite are balanced by many beautiful shots of sunrises, moonrises, mountains ridges, wildflowers, African plains, and the people and wildlife of the many countries Rowell visited.