Winter Light P H OTO G R A P H S BY
F LETCH E R MANL EY
Growing up among hills and mountains helped shape my appreciation of the vertical landscape. Winter held a particular fascination with its low, glancing light, long shadows, and crisp accentuated textures, where snow sculpted and redefined familiar forms. So, it was not so much as mountaineer, but more a rambler among the peaks and valleys, that I came to frame light and shadows, shapes and forms inherent in the mountain landscape. Whereas the essence of photography is light, the joy of photography, for me at least, is in the looking, and seeing. The camera serves to fit a frame around a portion of the larger world, to focus our attention, and in a brief moment transfer that vision to a piece of film or a digital chip. Through these images I wish to share some of my visions of winter light.
F L E T C H E R MA N L E Y
Winter Light PH OTO G R APH S BY
FL ETC H E R MA NL EY
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Anaktuvuk Village Alaska, 1970
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Introduction Winter Light is Fletcher’s first book. It is neither big nor extensive in pages, and perhaps that is why it is such a jewel. It is a book from a person who loves the mountains and the sports he plays on them. It evokes the crispness of a morning, brilliantly clean with sun over new snow; the peaceful, darker blanket of white laid down during a snowstorm; the sparkle there is in a snowflake – highlights within highlights. And he saw the sense of life there is in the flash of speed, weightlessness, the spray of glittering snow, the sense of place. Fletcher made the photographs that appear in this book between 1967 and 2010. Anyone who has spent time in the mountains can recall the wonderful feeling of beauty and peace we find in Winter Light and we thank him for sharing these moments with us.
PE T E R M I L L E R Waterbury, Vermont
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Early Ice Lowell Lake, Vermont, 1983
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The Wetterhorn Grindelwald, Switzerland, 1967
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Mount Orne Bridge Upper Connecticut River Landmark, 2003
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Winter Woods Vermont, 1990 7
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Vanishing Footprints New Hampshire, 1994
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Hiking Into Mount Graylock Massachusetts, 1994 9
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Student Bicycles, Akita Station Japan, 1972
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The Balsam’s Hotel Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, 2010
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British Columbia Canada, 1986 12
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Downhill Las Lenyas, Argentina, 1985
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Graceful Flight Garmisch,Germany, 1967
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Saplings Vermont forest, 1994 15
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Backcountry Skiing Mount Moran, Wyoming, 1970 16
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Wilderness Skiing North Cascade Range, Washington, 1985
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Approaching Storm British Columbia, Canada, 1986
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Climbing The Headwall Chutes Mount Washington, 1996
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On The Haute Route Switzerland, 1975
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From The Train Rural Village, Japan, 1972
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From The Train Mountain Station, Japan, 1972
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Grindelwald Switzerland, 1968 24
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Woodshed Les Bois, France, 1968
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Morning Conference Kyoto, Japan, 1972 26
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Window View Mount Zao, Japan, 1972 27
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Powder-8’s British Columbia, Canada, 1986
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Wind Cornice, Mount Rose Nevada, 1974 29
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Passo Pordoi The Dolomite, Italy, 1985 30
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Quebec City Canada, 1989 31
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Ski Touring The Haute Route France to Zermatt, Switzerland, 1975
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Haute Route French Alps, 1975 33
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Refuge Above Glacier Trient Switzerland, 1975
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Mount Rose Nevada, 1973
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Above Blue River British Columbia, Canada, 1986
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Helicopter Skiing British Columbia, Canada, 1986
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Mount Cook National Park New Zealand, 1985 38
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Tuckerman Ravine Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 2002
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Endnotes The photographs in this book, with the exception of one image, “Balsam’s Hotel,” were taken with film camera formats ranging from 35mm to 6 x 7cm. All of the photographs, however, eventually benefited from the advantages of digital enhancement. Black-and-white negatives, plus three Kodachromes, were oil mounted and scanned on a Screen desktop drum scanner, or with a Nikon Super Coolscan film scanner. My intent was to capture, as much as possible, the full range of the negative or transparency. Emphasis was given to retaining highlight and shadow information. Scanned files were then opened in Photoshop and tonal adjustment curves applied. Finally, dust and scratches, plus any imperfections in the file were cleaned up, and sharpening was added as needed. Once I was satisfied with the final black-and-white files, duotone curves for each image were created and optimized for the offset press and paper used to print this book. For many years my camera of choice was the Leica M-series rangefinder. As opposed to optical viewing, where I become most concerned with what is happening on the ground glass, the clear viewfinder of the Leica rangefinder camera presents minimal interference between me and my subject. But the rangefinder camera is not always the best choice for capturing high-action sports. For that I often used
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motor driven SLRs, typically Nikons and Olympus OM4s. Slowly I morphed into all digital photography, going from scanning film to digital cameras and letting go my wet darkroom. With the advent of the 21 megapixel Canon 5dMKII DSLR I feel I have a camera most suitable for my needs and objectives at this time. It combines the versatility of an SLR with the near image quality of a medium format film camera. With this camera I am also able to mount the 60mmLeitz Macro Elmarit-R lens for a compact onlocation copy system. The human eye is most sensitive to small changes in the bright tones and pastel areas, thus correct highlight placement has always been, and still remains, essential to a successful image, be it halftone negatives for offset printing, film, or digital files. By utilizing the digital cameras histogram and adjusting its exposure for the brightest area of the subject, we are able to achieve this, if not yet precisely. And in that, “exposing to the right,” we have come a long way indeed from our grandfathers who removed the lens cap and repeated their mantra, “expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights.” It has been said that the essence of photography is light, and while our tools and technology may change, that principal remains the same.
Fletcher Manley
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Biography After my formal education, consisting of Lyndon Institute (’56) and Middlebury College (’62) in my home state of Vermont, early employment in public relations departments in Colorado and Vermont ski resorts led to several years of freelance photography and cinematography throughout the U.S. and abroad. Photography stimulated my interest in photomechanical reproduction, and by working in the printing trade I eagerly learned prepress skills ranging from wet-dotetching and camera-back color separations to drum scanning and computer imaging. This was augmented with technical programs at the Rochester Institute of Technology and at the Kodak Center for Creative Imaging in Camden, Maine. I joined The Stinehour Press in Lunenburg, Vermont early in its digital transformation and enjoyed a dozen years as an imaging technician assisting with the printing of fine art reproductions for national publishing companies. Retiring from The Stinehour Press in 2004, I continue my activity in digital imaging, working independently and in association with Stinehour Editions. In this I am able to happily merge my combined disciplines of photography and image reproduction.
F L E T C H E R MA N L E Y Fletcher Manley Imaging Lancaster, New Hampshire 03584 fletch@ncia.net
DES I G N ED BY STE P H E N ST INE H O UR, S O UT H LUNE NBURG, V E RMO NT PR I N T ED BY C A P ITA L O F F S ET, C O NC O RD , NEW H A MP S H IRE B I N DI N G BY N EW H A MP S H IRE BIND E RY, C O NC O RD , NEW H A MP S H IRE
WINTER LIGHT published by
FLETCHER MANLEY Fletcher Manley Imaging Lancaster, New Hampshire 03584 www. fletchermanley. com fletch@ncia.net
Bridger Bowl Montana, 1992