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Monday, August 10, 2015

Cont. The Hudson River by Robert Glenn Ketchum

by Robert Glenn Ketchum


This is the story of my first major commission and book, THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS (Aperture, 1985). In 1984, #StephenShore, #WilliamClift, and I received a 2-year commission from the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund to photograph the #HudsonRiverValley. This blog tells the tale of the book, with many photos not seen before. Enjoy!


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Due to the size and quality of the photos included in this blog, and as too many photos tend to slow a blog down, we have opted to host these previous entries on a separate post in order to best optimize your reading experience. Enjoy!

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Monday, August 3, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #148:
HUDSON RIVER #148:  Here is one for #Ansel: “Moonrise Over Snow Removal Equipment near #IndianPoint.” It all depends on your point of view, I guess. In my last post I mentioned a small bay off of the river that ran to #Annsville, and on this eve I am exploring that bay. This is much the same POV as my last two posts, but I have added a few foreground elements. As “scenic” as the #HudsonRiverValley can be, it always amazed me to find pockets in the woods and right next to the river that were just “discarded” and often being used for industrial “storage” or just outright dumping of stuff.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 27, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #147:
This is classic fall twilight in the Hudson. This view is looking west from the eastern shore, above #Peekskill (@CityOfPeekskill). To the left, I am looking downriver. In the middle, I am looking upriver. The water to the right of the @MetroNorth railroad bridge is a long, narrow bay that terminates at #Annsville and #HudsonHighlandsGatewayPark. The #Hudson river has just turned north, and west, around #JonesPoint and #BaldMountain (middle silhouette). Continuing upriver, #BearMountainStatePark / #IonaIsland can be seen directly above the track bridge in this view. Beyond there the river will again bend right to a more true north as it heads toward #WestPoint (@WestPoint_USMA).
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 20, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #146:
HUDSON RIVER #146:   With #HarrimanStatePark (@MyHarriman) and #BearMountainStatePark rising on the western shore, and the #HudsonHighlands rising on the eastern shore, the #HudsonRiverValley narrows. The large, expansive southern bays have one last hurrah at #Peekskill (@CityOfPeekskill) before the river doglegs west and north between #BaldMountain and the Hudson Highlands. Peekskill is also the location of @Indian_Point nuclear plant, one of the oldest in the US (and stunningly close to Manhattan if anything were to happen). For the most part, at this point in the valley the shorelines are dark at night except for the small pockets of suburban light. Here in a lingering fall twilight looking downriver, the iconic skyline of Indian Point, and a power corridor flowing out of it, are part of a view the #HudsonRiverPainters could never have imagined.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 13, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #145:
HUDSON RIVER #145:   Once I began working in the #HudsonRiverValley on a daily basis, I understood how clearly #TheHudsonRiverSchool of painters “got” the river valley, the surrounding mountains, and the amazing light. As the first school of American Painting, they were NEARLY photo-realists, and it captivated their audiences, especially the scenes of dense forests full of radiant light, and fall color. As a contemporary artist working in those same locations, but with a more modern technology -- the camera -- I WAS a Photorealist. One way I took pleasure in marking the difference in how our “technologies” allowed us to see, was to revel in subjects that would have been nearly impossible to paint. The way a camera renders this immense biodiversity with the intense detail of layers, lines, and color form is simply unparalleled. AND I didn’t need the Hudson river “light,” nor the fall colors, just some winter swampland in #HarrimanStatePark.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 6, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #144:
HUDSON RIVER #144:   Harriman State Park (@MyHarriman), in particular, is a spectacle of Eastern deciduous woodlands. Challenging topography, swamps, bogs, lakes everywhere, and dense forests make Harriman a wonderful place to wander, however with the not-too-well marked dirt roads, one can easily get lost walking. Even in the winter when most of the trees are leafless, line-of-sight in any direction may only be a few hundred feet. When the trees leaf-out, even the sky disappears. As a #photographer, I loved this environment, yet it gave me a whole new respect for navigation with a compass. I suppose if I were on this #HudsonRiver commission today, I would be using the GPS on my @iPhone6plus. Hell, I would be using the iPhone6plus camera as well! Toss the medium format, the tripod, and those rolls of film that often had to be changed in the pouring rain.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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Monday, June 29, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #143:
HUDSON RIVER #143:   Across the @TappanZeeBridge from #Kykuit are the towns of #Nyack and #Congers. The western shoreline of the #Hudson also begins to gain elevation, first in the smaller (although really not-so-small) riverfront #RocklandStatePark, then farther north into #HighTorStatePark. High Tor vistas look down upon the township of #Haverstraw, and look upriver to the west at the very large and mountainous #HarrimanStatePark, and the somewhat smaller, #BearMountainStatePark. These last two are “crown jewel” parks in the central Hudson. Characterized by dense forests, many lakes (some of which are quite large), and a rugged topography; most of this is wild land. #Route6 and the #PalisadesInterstateParkway are really the only paved roads. In the large acreage of these parks, there are some unmarked dirt roads, but they are not well mapped - as I often discovered - and it was easy to get lost (happily, in my case).
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, June 22, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #142:
HUDSON RIVER #142:   #Kykuit is one of several magnificent estates in the #HudsonRiverValley, but is clearly the most opulent of them all. Originally designed as 3-stories by the architects #ChesterHolmesAldrich and #WilliamAdamsDelano, it took six years to build.  Before the Rockefeller family moved in, however, it was substantially rebuilt to its present 4-story #ClassicalRevivalGeorgian style. Finally completed in 1913, it has 2 basement levels filled with service tunnels and interconnected passageways. Stunningly decorated with fine furnishings, collections of Chinese and European ceramics, and 20th Century masterpiece art, it was designated a #NationalHistoricLandmark in 1976, and presently allows public tours. Here you see the elegant “tea house” bathed in the eloquent light of the valley on a crisp fall day. Ah! The good life! Would anyone care to take some tea?
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, June 15, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #141:
HUDSON RIVER #141:   At the time I was working on my #HudsonRiver commission, #Kykuit wasn't open to the public, and NO ONE was allowed to photograph the gardens and surrounding estate. However, as Laurance Rockefeller was one of the earliest collectors of my work, I was allowed to take pictures that were to be given to him. Those images are still controlled by a non-disclosure agreement, but the actual house you see here is in public domain. The entire family estate once covered 3,500 acres. And it supported farming, cattle, a vast staff, 75 houses, over 70 miles of road, stunning gardens, and a 9-hole golf course. Frederick Law Olmstead, the designer of #CentralPark, was the original landscape architect of Kykuit. JohnDRockefeller,Sr., however, disliked Olmstead's design, and personally took over for a time, before hiring WilliamWellesBosworth to finish the project. Much of that land is now encompassed within Rockefeller State Park Preserve and is open to the public.  The smaller “family compound" of 300+ acres is still a very private "home" to 10 (or so) current family members.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, June 8, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #140:
HUDSON RIVER #140:   Like many of the bridges across the #HudsonRiver, the #TappanZee is considered "historic", and features the graceful structural lines of steel-span bridge #architecture. The Tappan Zee is quite a long bridge because the river widens significantly at #Tarrytown, and becomes a HUGE bay of water. Moving north along the eastern shore, the town of #SleepyHollow and the #PocanticoHills follow Tarrytown. At river's edge there are #KingslandPointPark and #FreemontPondTownPark, and inland the much larger #RockefellerStateParkPreserve and #GrahamHillsCountyPark. Then, in the Pocantico Hills lies the 300+ acre compound, #Kykuit. This is not a park, but as beautiful as anything you have ever seen. The difference is Kykuit, now designated for historical architecture, AND open to the public, is the family home(s) of many generations of the #Rockefeller family. This view of the Tappan Zee has been taken from the roof of Kykuit, looking downriver.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, June 1, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #139:
HUDSON RIVER #139:   The western shore of the #HudsonRiver through #NewJersey to the #NewYork border is all #PalisadesInterstatePark. Then, from the New York border to the #TappanZeeBridge, there is a succession of large, mountainous parks: #TallmanMountainStatePark; #ClauslandMountainPark; and #BlauveltStatePark. The eastern shore has fewer mountains, yet NO lack of parks. These are mostly #woodland and #wetland habitats that support spectacular forests, small lakes, or reservoirs, and some serious "swamps." Below the Tappan Zee, this includes: #FortWashingtonPark; #FortTryonPark; #InwoodHillPark; #RiverdalePark; #VanCortlandtPark; #TibbettsBrookPark; #SullivanPark; #FlemingPark; #RedmondPark; #TrevorPark; #SprainRidgePark; #LenoirPreserve; #HillsidePark; #MemorialPark; #ScenicHudsonPark; #MaithiessenPark; and, #HalseyPondPark, as well as numerous smaller parks within the riverside communities. Above the Tappan Zee, and just to the north of #Tarrytown, larger parks begin to appear on the eastern shore, and although there are still many small cities and towns, their presence is diminished by the surrounding forests and relatively wild lands.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, May 25, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #138:
HUDSON RIVER #138:   In many places at this point in our journey, #MetroNorth rail tracks along the eastern shore of the #HudsonRiver are so close to the river that they are built on elevated berms to accommodate tidal fluctuations and seasonally high water on the river. When riding trains, at first I was struck by the views of #industrial #landscapes. Then I began to appreciate the historical layers, and one day it dawned on me how much relatively wild land there was outside the window. Without a doubt, the #HudsonRiverValley is a completely domesticated landscape.  Yet especially when you train, you see the dense deciduous forest, the protected wetlands, state parks, and wildlife that either never left, or have since returned in abundance. My wife and I had sizable groups of deer foraging in our vegetable garden, and a bear reportedly used the #NewYorkThruway to move between the #Adirondack and #Catskill mountains!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, May 18, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #137:
HUDSON RIVER #137:   The #PalisadesInterstateParkway closely follows the #HudsonRiver shoreline through most of #BergenCounty, New Jersey, running along the top of the palisade. On the eastern shore, #NewYork #Route9 also parallels the river but in a more meandering way, wandering a bit inland through the cities of #Yonkers, #HastingOnHudson, and #DobbsFerry. However, the rail tracks of #MetroNorth quite literally run ALONG the eastern shoreline, which unlike the western shore, is FULLY developed. Riding this train offers an amazing view of the river on one side and the “historic” residential and industrial sites on the other. During my commission, the more I learned about what I was seeing, the more I could appreciate the layers of the 400yrs. of American history that lie upon this landscape, and these tracks are part of it.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, May 11, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #136:
HUDSON RIVER #136:   Leaving the Jersey industrial docks, I traveled north, along the #NewJerseyTurnpike as it parallels the #HudsonRiver. The Turnpike terminates near #FortLee and the #GeorgeWashingtonBridge. Then the highway north draws nearer to the river and is called the #PalisadesInterstateParkway. The parkway parallels the river north through #BergenCounty, #NewJersey. This side of the #Hudson is distinguished by the dramatic palisade shoreline that begins just south of the bridge and extends up river for many miles into New Jersey. Many of #Manhattan's more historic homes and apartments were constructed with the "brownstone" cut from these palisade cliffs. The steep cliffs also afford dramatic views of the river and here I am looking back (downriver) at the George Washington Bridge and Manhattan with the #EmpireStateBuilding sitting rather nicely in the center of the skyline.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, May 4, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #135:
HUDSON RIVER #135:   Some followers of this blog have asked me to provide an overview of the #HudsonRiverValley from #headwater to the #ocean, because my descriptions to this point have mashed-up various parts of the landscape for the sake of my story. I am going to answer that request by going in reverse from the mouth of the #HudsonRiver to the headwaters, and taking each section of the valley, as it would be seen traveling upriver. The actual mouth of the Hudson meets the #Atlantic just past the island of #Manhattan, bounded on the northeast shore by #Brooklyn / #Queens, and on the southwest shore by #NewJersey and #StatenIsland. This view is from a container storage area amidst the Jersey shore industrial docks. The Manhattan skyline is in the distance; the Hudson river is between us, And yes, those ARE the #WorldTradeCenter towers... they had only recently been built.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, April 27, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #134:
HUDSON RIVER #134:   Some #swamps were more obvious than others. While not quite the #Everglades, this is a very respectable swampy place. It was locations such as these where the #flora and #fauna of the #HudsonRiverValley really displayed their diversity. Forest plants, aquatic plants, cattails, trees, and pond algae. A visual and biological feast for sure, the downside of these teeming, still waters was the inherent insect population. AND the longer I took to make the picture, the more I was introduced to those members of this “magnificent biodiversity!”
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, April 20, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #133:
HUDSON RIVER #133:   Not all of that water flows to the #HudsonRiver, however, and because it does pool-up in various ways it feeds the #biodiversity. The #HudsonValley region and surrounding mountains have many lakes, but they also have an astounding number of swamps. In some low-lying areas, right after the seasonal melt, swamps and ponds appear that are not even on the map. If you are out hiking around, these can be large enough to be substantial obstacles to your navigation. Here is a good example: I have just scrambled up one side of a rocky berm, and initially it looks like there is a colorful forest before me. NOTE WELL the flooded condition of the forest floor. Apparently these plants will survive this, but I will do better to walk around it!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, April 13, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #132:
HUDSON RIVER #132:   The #streams and #waterfalls of the #Catskill Mountains, in particular, were a favorite subject of the #HudsonRiverSchool of #painters. The beautiful paths the water cut through the rock forming the infamous steep and narrow "cloves", and their meandering around in the mixed deciduous forest make for some of the most picturesque waterways in North America. That abundance of water not only feeds the #HudsonRiver but, as I have stated before in this blog, it fosters one of the MOST biologically diverse areas in North America. These forests TEEM with life, and who would have thought cactus, evergreens and ice storms could co-exist?
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, April 6, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #131:
HUDSON RIVER #131:   So much for my “road” series, AND I am sure any of my followers on the East Coast are also sick of my snow and ice pictures! So here is the good news: ultimately ice DOES melt away. When spring comes to the #HudsonValley and surrounding #Catskill and #Adirondack mountains, waterfalls appear everywhere, creeks swell, mosses “green-up”, and little spring buds begin to appear on every plant, bush and tree. In some of the steep, narrow #canyons of the #Catskills, the water sounds are symphonic, and change constantly. As you move about the vertical walls and coves, sounds echo and gurgle from seemingly every direction.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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 Monday, March 30, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #130:
HUDSON RIVER #130:   The worst ice storm that occurred while I was working on the #HudsonRiverValley commission quite literally trapped me at my house. I am standing at the edge of my driveway, and this is Indian Brook Road solidly covered with an ice glaze! Trying to drive my van out, I slid off the driveway onto the lawn, so now I am “walking” around, using my tripod as a crutch. Even doing that, I still fell down several times. With the air slowly warming, the ice dropped from the trees and melted off of branches. At least I didn't have shards falling on me, but to my dismay getting around would remain treacherous for the rest of the day. SO I went back inside, lit a fire, and had a “toddy”!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, March 23, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #129:
HUDSON RIVER #129:   My LEAST favorite roads are ANY AFTER AN ICE STORM! The spectacles along the roadside are always interesting, HOWEVER the #HudsonRiver #weather cycle of freezing rain and snow, followed by warming and then re-freezing, creates some hideous black-ice conditions that not even my trick van liked much. Also, as beautiful as this icefall was, because of the freezing-thawing cycle, during a thaw this entire wall could collapse on the the roadway suddenly, or throw off large pieces, which is always nice to have happen if you are driving by.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, March 16, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #128:
HUDSON RIVER #128:   Then there are some roads when you are thinking, “What WAS I thinking ?” After a hard, wet snow all night, I awoke to find the forest surrounding my home laden, and quite "magical." I got my #cameras and went out immediately, as I knew my van would be fine on the driven roads like #Route9. However, the more I drove around the more I began to realize the real "magic" was elsewhere: in the deep forest. So, I decided to try to drive one of the country roads that went "deep", and I thought I knew it well enough to be safe. Returning to my opening comment, "What was I thinking ?" This DID NOT look like the road I "thought" I knew. It had been transformed, and it was as intimidating as it was beautiful. At this point I am realizing there is NO place to turn around, I am too far down the road to back up, and going forward it only gets weirder; another good reason to have food, water, warm gear, and a bed in your van. Turns out it was a lovely drive, even given the squirrely conditions AND thank god I never met anyone coming the other way.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, March 9, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #127:
HUDSON RIVER #127:   This road “went country” and then petered-out on private property. From the look of things, whoever owned this farm did NOT drive the road much. The snow had been walked upon, yet not driven over, and the grass remained very high in the median. If this person left their property, it was not very often; or it may be that this is a “country house” for someone from “the city” and they only visit during the summer months. The Hudson river light, however, doesn't seem to take a vacation....
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, March 2, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #126:
HUDSON RIVER #126:   Here is another dirt country road in the mid-Hudson valley also graced by the infamous #Hudson valley light. To be sure, this is a different season from the last post and it is A LOT colder on this particular evening, however the road was there, and as always, the elegance of the light was irresistible. It is worth noting that “winter” makes a country road seem more narrow. In the Hudson, many of the roads had VERY SOFT shoulders that went into swampy drainage ditches. You were never sure whether it was solid beneath the snowy edge. So often driving along I would pray not to meet anyone coming the other way, as on the narrowing road, one of us would have to pull to the side to let the other go by; not always with good results.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, February 23, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #125:
HUDSON RIVER #125:   For all I have said about beautiful homes and big estates, the greater #HudsonRiverValley is quite rural. Many people have horses and raise stock.  Consequently they also have pastures they hay to provide feed for their animals. Hudson valley residents have VERY specific opinions, as well, and act on them politically. Among many property owners there is the intention to keep their roads “historically” dirt; they do NOT want them to be paved. Clearly this also adds to the rural “feeling” of the landscape. Here is some nice, late afternoon Hudson river light on one such “country” road... ”take me home.”
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, February 16, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #124:
HUDSON RIVER #124:   The #HudsonRiverValley hosts some of #NorthAmerica’s most significant estates. Some like the Rockefeller home, #Kykuit, are well known. Others are of families that you may never have heard of; and they intend to keep it that way! Often while driving around, I would come upon a scene like this. At first blush, this is merely a simple country road passing by various historical Hudson farmhouses and structures. And indeed, this road stretches several miles, passing additional houses and pastures before dead-ending at a substantial compound of spectacular architecture. With no visible signage, I had no reason to consider any of my drive “private” until I hit a dead-end. The people I encountered there wanted to know who I was, and what I was doing on their property, which I learned covered several square miles. The entire road was their driveway! The structures along the way were “staff” houses. Of course, with my California license plate, I just apologized and explained that I was "lost."
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, February 9, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #123:
HUDSON RIVER #123:   As previously noted, for this project I worked from a tricked-out van, and that made "roads" my friend. I am adventurous, always curious, and a little crazy, so I look at roads not yet traveled as “suggestions from God.” In looking through this collected work, there are a striking number of “road” #photographs, so for the next dozen posts I'm going to take you on a proverbial “road trip". This first #image was in the original #Aperture (@Aperturefnd) book, and may have played a part in Aperture accepting this work for publication. Aperture's Executive Director, Michael E. Hoffman, in looking over all the film said he was concerned that there were no pictures of people. His widely respected senior editor, Carole Kismaric, countered that my urban and industrial #landscapes suggested their presence, so they were not relevant. They actually argued about this, UNTIL she came upon this image, and while pointing to it she said, “Here is “people”, can we publish this now? Michael smiled, turned to walk out of the room, and said, “Fine. Fine. I am not going to win this one. Go ahead.”
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, February 2, 2015
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #122:
HUDSON RIVER #122:   Here is another of these pairings, and this one I view as being more about time and its passage than being about the actual subject portrayed. In previous posts #111-115, I suggested #pictures such as these two were viewed by magazines and art directors as pictures of “nothing”: no specific subject of interest. But I defend them suggesting the obvious subject in the image may not be the ACTUAL subject. Sometimes making those #images was about recording a POV that no one else would bother to observe. In other posts I suggest the subject is just the #light, or the harmony of the #color tones. In post #113, I suggest the subject is a SENSE of place, NOT the objects depicted, and in this #diptych, the subject is NOT this grass field, it is about how time transforms it.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 26, 2015
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #121:
HUDSON RIVER #121:   In publication and #exhibition, I often juxtaposed #images, like post #119 with post #120, because together they express the remarkable biological and visual breadth of this subject. Every once in awhile, I actually framed two images together, as is the case here. I DID NOT precisely set this up. The near-exact framing of these two shots was COMPLETELY accidental, and I didn't even realize this had happened until I was in the greater edit for the #exhibit. After all, these images were made more than 6-months apart. They do suggest, however, that my eye senses some VERY SPECIFIC alignment of the #landscape when I am down in this part of the #IonaMarsh.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 19, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #120:
HUDSON RIVER #120:   Previously I quoted the painter #AndrewWyeth (post #115) where he spoke of the winter #landscape, suggesting that “something waits beneath it.” After the rain and cold, and the ice and snow, the world changes quickly when warmth returns. Something waiting, indeed! As one of my first important commissions, the #HudsonRiver project taught me the value of committing to be in the subject #location for an extended period of time. Time allows you to really see the daily landscape, and to appreciate the nuances of passing conditions. Not that there is much “nuance” between my last post (#119) and this one. It is more like an explosion!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 12, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #119:
HUDSON RIVER #119:   Because I had the luxury of my van, I LOVED being out in marginal #winter conditions. Surprisingly the #ice and #cold weren't the most difficult to work in. Long, cold #rains that went on for several days were the greatest challenge for me. Many of the finest color #images created by #EliotPorter taught me to appreciate working in #overcast conditions, however in the #Hudson I took that to a "Turner-esque" extreme. The medium format #Pentax 6x7 #camera I was working with was relatively protect-able. Plastic bags, bandanas, towels, and my van allowed me to sit out torrential rain storms in comfort while waiting. What a gift! I was warm, dry, and a voyeur to this amazing, drippy world, just hoping for a small window of respite in the #weather. For me, this was a real bonus of my commission to #photograph the #HudsonRiverValley. I was "within" the subject of #America's first school of #painting, yet I was employing new technologies that allowed me to extend our appreciation of this habitat WELL BEYOND anything the #painters could define!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, January 5, 2015

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #118:
HUDSON RIVER #118:  Another aspect of the #marshes along the #Hudson that I particularly enjoyed was their wildness in proximity to rural / urban existence. In the summer, canoeing in the sloughs and channels always offered up surprises, mostly a huge variety of #birdlife. In the winter, if it froze hard enough you might access similar territory on foot. In winter's cold, most of the wildlife was gone, but for occasional swans, and sounds became a heightened reality. Out here you could hear the rattle of the wind pushing through the frozen cattails. The drifting ice blocks on the river would tinkle and crack when they collided, or ground into the shore.  And in the distance, a faint buzz of cars on the shoreline highways, sometimes with their headlights briefly visible through the barren trees as they traversed the surrounding hills.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, December 29, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #117:
HUDSON RIVER #117:  Just to the south of #IndianBrook was the small township of #Garrison; to the north was #ColdSpring. #GarrisonLanding looks across river at the parapets and buildings of the West Point Military Academy (@westpoint_usma), shown here. Simply walking down Indian Brook Road brought me to the edge of the river at Constitution Island Marsh Sanctuary (@ConstitutionMarsh), and on some days – bad ice storms in particular – walking there was about the only location I could get to as my van was going nowhere, and even walking was a sketchy idea.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, December 22, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #116:
HUDSON RIVER #116:  In light of last post’s #AndrewWyeth quote, I will use the “bare bones” of the #winter #landscape to explain where I was living during this commission to #photograph the #HudsonRiver. This POV is from #BearMountain, looking down on the Bear Mountain bridge and the eastern shoreline. Upriver, the spot of sunlight highlights one of the many #marsh / #wetland complexes along the #river, and you can see the rural nature of the countryside – houses sit on large parcels and are distant from one another. When the #trees leaf back in, the homes will all disappear and these properties will become very private. The historical residence I rented is further north along this eastern shore in the hills above the #ConstitutionIslandMarsh and Sanctuary, and #IndianBrook flowed through the multi-acre property, sometimes rather uncontrollably (see this in previous blog post #20).
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, December 15, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #115:
HUDSON RIVER #115:  OK! I promise. This is the last picture of “nothing.” Just another wiggly day in front of my ground glass. For me, this image is about color tone similarities, BUT it also echoes a quote from the American painter #AndrewWyeth that I have always appreciated and agreed with: “I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. Something waits beneath it; the whole story does not show.”
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, December 8, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #114:
HUDSON RIVER #114:  At the other extreme of winter’s #seasonal decay, is the dense, overgrown, tick-filled extravagance of summer #meadows and #forest floors, dripping in the humidity and woven together by thousands of spider webs and endless vines. A “perfect” POV (whatever that is supposed to mean) would likely miss the chaos of the meadow for the structure of the #camera frame. I was interested in the “sense” of this more than the “view” of it, so this “subject-less” chaos is exactly what I was waist-deep and thrashing around in. All I had to do was set the #tripod and camera down.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, December 1, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #113:
HUDSON RIVER #113:  Here is another image of "nothing"; dead marsh cattails. Can’t get more pointless than that... I mean there is not even a bird or something in this. What? And then again, it was on an afternoon like this that #VanGogh was out painting in the fields of #France when those crows showed up, so maybe I am better off without any bird appearances. To me, this IS about “something.” It is about the look of #winter as seasonal decay sets in, and blustery weather rolls through. It is about a “sense” of place, NOT a POV-perfect #landscape.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, November 24, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #112:
HUDSON RIVER #112:  As long as I am at it, I will run a little portfolio of pictures of “nothing.” Just a bunch of bare trees here, although I think the #HudsonRiverSchool painter, #ThomasWorthingtonWittredge, would get what I was looking at. The Wittredge painting, “The Old Hunting Ground” was made on a similar afternoon about 100-years earlier. It caught my attention as a painting because it captured the light and busy-ness of the forest with almost camera-like accuracy. Apparently convention at the time called for more subject matter “of interest” though, so Whittredge added a canoe and some Indian romanticism through the title. NONETHELESS, I don’t really think that was his TRUE subject. A century later, I felt no compulsion to “add” anything to make “subject matter,” THIS MOMENT NEEDS NO STORYLINE TO MAKE IT BETTER!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, November 17, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #111:
HUDSON RIVER #111:  Except for the #Adirondack high country, few places in the #Hudson held much snow depth for any length of time. Winter was a process of snow / ice, followed by melt-out, followed by another round of snow / ice, with very little accumulation. Of the many “pleasures-of-the-view” the valley offered, most particularly in its dazzling array of fall color, I like the muted, earthen tones of the winter landscape just as much. I've been told by magazine editors and art directors that these pictures don’t work because they are of “nothing” -- no subject matter of interest. REALLY? The planet looks good to me!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, November 10, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #110:
HUDSON RIVER #110:   This particular early morning, I got a little bit of everything #weather-wise. It began in the dark with a light, VERY cold #ice #storm. Then it cleared and really froze everything solid for about an hour, before a light dusting of #snow fell. In the bright, even overcast after dawn, the graphics of the woods was very inviting, HOWEVER the getting-around-in-the-woods was not so great! Crackling, iced leaves were tricky enough but FOR SURE you do NOT want to step on any rocks. Standing under big branches is probably a bad idea as well.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, November 3, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #109:
HUDSON RIVER #109:  Of all the various freezing conditions that occurred in the #Hudson valley, ice storms were the most strange-beautiful to me. I had never seen one prior to moving to the Hudson for this commission, and although they were extremely challenging to travel in, they were amazing to behold. On this particular dawn, there has been a SIGNIFICANT storm during the night that brought down huge branches and whole trees. The 360-degree crystal glazing on EVERY SINGLE TWIG in this leafless forest glistens like some fantastic ice sculpture. The cloud in the background is vapor from an industrial stack, freezing in the air above the valley corridor.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, October 27, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #108:
HUDSON RIVER #108:  At first encounter, I thought the freezing of the #river an amazing thing, especially on the clear-as-glass freeze-overs, BUT sometimes the #Arctic cold would last longer and the river ice would freeze more deeply. Then, as things warmed-up, the river would break-up sending sizeable chunks of ice downstream. Winter #weather fluctuations like that damage docks - and as was the case here on a tributary of the upper-Hudson - the flowing ice chunks have jammed up, breaching the river bank onto the willow islands, and have surged across the riverbank onto the road.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, October 20, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #107:
HUDSON RIVER #107: Once you get past #Albany and the influence of the tide, an #Arctic cold spell will freeze the river solidly from shore-to-shore. This particular cold snap was so sudden that here the river is frozen like clear glass. Note how clear the sky is as well - it is a classic, sub-zero sunrise from a brutally cold night with NO cloud cover, so all radiant heat was lost from the planet surface and now things are just shivering cold. We are all, as The Doors said, “Waiting for the sun….” During these winter shoots, I was wearing layers of #Patagonia gear, which was great when I was active, but when standing around waiting for "the" shot, my favorite item was a pair of road-workers bright orange, insulated, high-waisted pants with suspenders! It did indeed ward off the cold, BUT it also kept me from being struck by crazy drivers, or shot by drunken hunters.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, October 13, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #106:
HUDSON RIVER #106: There were also periods of weather where the #HudsonValley became Arctic cold for days-on-end and the world slowly froze solid. The ground got hard like a rock, leaf debris crackled under foot, and any liquid surface, pond, lake, or creek turned to ice. The further upriver you went, the more the river itself was actually frozen over. I lived between Garrison and Cold Spring, a point near mid-river, and several times in the winter, the Hudson would freeze over, only the tidal movement keeping it from becoming a solid sheet. Here the view is north from the top of #StormKingMountain. That island with a castle ruin is called #Bannerman’s, and above there the river ice is nearly shore-to-shore.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, October 6, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #105:
HUDSON RIVER #105: Coming from the West, I found the winters in the #HudsonRiver valley produced a very different kind of snowfall. Being only slightly above sea-level, with the #Atlantic tide coming over 70-miles upriver, the marine waters in the winter were warmer than the air and they very often created fogs and accelerated melting after a storm. Often mild snowstorms would come through, put down a few inches and move on. The warmer, humid air of the river valley would melt everything away almost immediately, but you could drive further inland and find roads and fields completely snow-covered. Then there were other days when it was just SO cold the warmer tidal exchange was irrelevant and even the Hudson would freeze over.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, September 29, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #104:
HUDSON RIVER #104: "Being there" at the VERY END of a not-so-great weather day was not too bad either. Sometimes that #HudsonRiverLight would just creep-in beneath a storm at the last minute. If you are an observant painter / photographer, you know that cold temperatures have a color. While there is no doubt #film responds to #ultraviolet blues, there is also NO DOUBT that shadows / shade have varying degrees of #color, absolutely related to temperature. My friend and #ILCP Fellow, Jack Dykinga (#Dykinga-Photography), does amazing work in the desert Southwest, and he would surely attest to hues of both blue and purple in the shade. On this night in the #Hudson valley there is not much purple, it is just ruthlessly cold. I am wearing some pretty funny looking clothing.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, September 22, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #103:
HUDSON RIVER #103: That "amazing-ring-of-gate-keys" I had been given by the Director of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Commission enhanced my willingness to be out in places no one else COULD GET when weather events happened. The cattail marsh around #Iona Island was one of my favorites, and also one of the most "delicate." Being down at river level, air movement was merciless and the build-up of snow on reeds and branches seldom lasted... HOWEVER by "being there" you at least had a chance at a shot. This is one of my favorite $images of the entire commission: the lacy, bright, snow-covered branches against the dark, wet wall, and the slightly flattened perspective of a longer lens create a "strange" tapestry. Kind of a Don Juan dawn!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, September 15, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #102:
HUDSON RIVER #102: Another great part about "being there", out in the elements when the storm is happening, is that you are in an incredible position to work, both during the storm AND immediately thereafter (if you can get around). When #weather would break in the #HudsonRiverValley, the departure of a storm was usually accompanied by a lot windy conditions. In front of you is a very delicate balance; the storm has broken and the #snowfall has stopped. In this shot, it looks like 2-inches have accumulated on every twig and branch. If you were just leaving your home or studio, you would never see this, because within minutes after I took this, a chill breeze began to blow pushing the storm out. It also began a mortal cascade that only grew greater as the wind grew stronger. One branch would unload, and falling snow chunks would set off hundreds of other branches. In a matter of minutes it was as if it were snowing again... and then it was all gone!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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 Monday, September 8, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #101:
HUDSON RIVER #101: At the end of my last post I referenced #JMWTurner, who is a British #painter and not part of the #HudsonRiverSchool, yet I feel he shared more interests with them than with his fellow Brits, #Lorraine, #Constable and #Gainsborough. Early in his career, Turner did paint portraits and imaginary, sometimes metaphorical #landscapes, as did his peers, HOWEVER as his career progressed he became fascinated with light. His paintings became increasingly abstract and ephemeral, more about fluid colors and vague forms. It is claimed he once had himself tied to the mast of a ship so he could live through a storm and see it without being swept overboard. Turner's latter works are often considered "luminist paintings" although #Luminism was an American school of painting and Turner was not a part of it. I appreciate his concept of "being-in-the-moment" to inform the work. While I am NOT tied to a mast in this image, I did just wake up in my van parked along some very rural road. Don't know about Hudson river light, but it still looks like a good morning to me.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, September 1, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #100:
HUDSON RIVER #100: Certainly one of the issues of being "out" in the Hudson Valley winter was just being able to get around. I don't mean 'in-the-woods' as much as I mean 'out-on-the-roads'. Really bad weather brought serious ice or deep snow, and many of the smaller community and farm roads were slow to be plowed. Once again my tricked-out van was an essential tool! Not only did I have tires and transmission suited for winter conditions, BUT it was also fully insulated.  Using NO STOVES, or heaters, I regularly overnighted off-road in rural places, fully expecting weather to come during the night, and wanting to be in the middle of it when morning arrived. Kind of J.M.W. Turner... in a van!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, August 25, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #99:
HUDSON RIVER #99: Although there are a few #HudsonRiverSchool #paintings depicting #winter scenes, notably #FredericChurch's, "View from Olana in the Snow," winters in the #Hudson can be cold and harsh and I think the painters preferred warmer, more colorful seasons. Even Church's painting is from his house which he called #Olana, he is not out in the valley wandering around. A century later, however, I had skied and winter camped since I was 13-years old. I was also working with #film, so I did not have to worry about my paint freezing, AND #Patagonia and I were developing a life-long friendship so I had GREAT winter clothing and wanted to be out there on difficult days because the magic of the light in the Hudson Valley was as much a part of winter as it was any of the other seasons.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, August 18, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #98:
HUDSON RIVER #98: It was not just the humid summer evenings that contributed to the #diffuse #light of the #HudsonRiverValley, so did the #tidal fluctuation. In the fall, when the temperature of the air began to cool significantly, warmer water from the #Atlantic, coming upriver with an incoming tide would, quite literally, steam. In this image of sunrise from the eastern shore, the haze is NOT a fog created by a weather condition - this haze is being created in front of my eyes as vapors of steam come up off the river and linger over the valley corridor until they are evaporated by the heat of the sun.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, August 11, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #97:
HUDSON RIVER #97: John #Constable and Thomas #Gainsborough were two of the most well known British #landscape #painters of the 19th-Century, and also the most vocal critics of the painters and paintings of the #HudsonRiverSchool. They stated that the extraordinary color and light reflected in the Hudson River School paintings was an exaggeration to make our "poor impoverished country" appear more grand. BOTH Constable and Gainsborough had wealth and friends, and they traveled about the British countryside in carriages making "field sketches," which were then taken back into the painter's studio where they selected bits and parts from different sketches to make an imaginary landscape. Critics now say of them they viewed the world from carriage windows. The Hudson River painters also sketched and altered, but many painted out-of-doors, in-the-moment as well, and consequently they understood the changing light in a different way. In this photograph, that evening light has come down on the valley like a brocaded British cloak!
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Monday, August 4, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #96:
HUDSON RIVER #96: On other nights, especially in late fall, the air would clear after a hard rain and the #light would be crystalline. With tree trunks so wet as to be saturated black, the twigs and brush in the lower portion of the background are also wet.  In the deep shade, and reflecting the blue from the clearing sky, the saturation sets up an astounding range of #color layers; some that contrast one-another, and some that compliment. This range of #colors seems even broader and more startling than the brilliant fall scenes and sunsets painted by #HudsonRiverSchool #painters, BUT in their day, their #paintings were criticized in Europe as being "exaggerations," and plenty of critics of my work (who know NOTHING about light/sense-of-place/film response) have said the same thing. Reality is... the painters and I were all working from -- AND IN -- the natural world.  AND IF YOU PAY ATTENTION ONCE IN AWHILE, THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 28, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #95:
HUDSON RIVER #95: The unique #biodiversity of the #HudsonRiverValley is created by the huge tidal flux from the #Atlantic that travels nearly 70-miles up the river, mixing colder river water with warmer saline ocean water. As much of the river is surrounded by mountain ranges and dense forests / vegetation, the valley becomes a corridor of humidity and the presence of all that moisture in the air creates the light that so fascinated the Hudson River School of #painters. Being a #photographer, I found the light to have an even greater range than I found in the #paintings. On especially hot and humid days, late in the afternoon, sometimes the light would be so diffuse as to hardly "be there" at all.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 21, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #94:
HUDSON RIVER #94: While I certainly appreciated #LIFE's editors selecting my image for their special issue and suggesting it was comparable to a painting from the #HudsonRiverSchool, what was actually being acknowledged were the common bonds I shared with the #painters. WE had chosen to work outside the #studio and actually BE in the subject we were rendering, AND we both had an affinity for #color and the radiance of #light to be found in the humid #environment of the river valley. I am not sure if the painters recognized that the #textures of #foliage within their #paintings were due to the #Hudson valley's astounding #biodiversity, but they were -- and more recent science had taught me that -- so my #images capitalized on it. As did my large format #camera, defining every leaf and limb with a clarity impossible to #paint.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 14, 2014
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #93:
HUDSON RIVER #93: Apparently I was not the only person that thought my previous post, the image "The #Popolopen Bridge," had a presence. Once my work from the #HudsonRiver commission was published, there was also an exhibit that circulated in New York. One day I received a telephone call from a senior editor at #LIFEMagazine who was working on a special "Collector's Edition," one-of-a-kind publishing featuring the WORLD'S best photographs from the '80's. The WORLD? The entire '80's? LIFE magazine had great #photographers worldwide and could actually do this, so why were they calling me? Several of the editors had gone together to see my Hudson river show, and they were ALL blown away by "The Popolopen Bridge" image. When I asked what struck them about that print above all the other images in the show/in the world, the reply was it was quintessentially Hudson, completely timeless, and could easily have been a Hudson River School painting.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, July 7, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #92:
HUDSON RIVER #92: For those of you following this blog, you will recognize I posted this image as #7, and then later image #24 is the same view covered with snow. In #24 I commented that I had the luxury of time to see locations change through the #seasons and sometimes post those images as multiple panels, such as those that I have put up most recently. So, why did I present this image WITHOUT it's comparable winter view?  As a #photographer, I have also been a committed #printmaker, and revel in the beauty of a great print. When printing this, to me it was so ethereal and wonderfully subtle, I wanted it to stand alone. It just had a presence I could not really explain, but I could see.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, June 30, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #91:
HUDSON RIVER #91: I also found myself using multiple-panel #imagery to make #environmental commentary. Frederic Church was a prominent figure within the #Hudson River School of #painters and many of his canvases featured spectacular sunsets. This image, entitled "Requiem for Frederic Church", acknowledges the Hudson river and the Church-esque sunsets but sarcastically includes all the dumped trash in the foreground as well. In all of my travels, it has been unique to New York that for some reason, a segment of the population chooses to use scenic overlooks and woodland trailhead parking areas as places to dump their residential trash, rather than taking it to the public dump. Standing at some of the most beautiful river overlooks, I would gaze down and at the bottom of the wall or embankment it would look like a landfill.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, June 23, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #90:
HUDSON RIVER #90: In a working area like the #Hudson Valley that is small enough to circulate through multiple times in an extended shoot (2-years), you can revisit familiar places as the #seasons alter them. Some of those places are "always the same" as your viewpoint is limited, but when considering those same places over the passage of time, they are actually never the same. As I was now often using multi-panels to describe exaggerated fields-of-view, I decided to also print/exhibit my "time-altered" images using multiple panels to reveal some very interesting #seasonal transformations. That is #Bear Mountain with Iona Island in the distance, on the opposite shore of the #river.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, June 16, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #89:
HUDSON RIVER #89: Of the many things I learned while working on my #Hudson river commission, the MOST important was TO SEE THE ENTIRE #LANDSCAPE - natural, residential, industrial, obviously scenic, and completely ordinary - all essential parts to having any sense of place. This #image speaks to that point directly, AND it is one of my favorite - a completely overlook-able patch of flowers, weeds, and grasses whose specks of colorful blooms dribble across the image like paint drops on an abstract expressionist's canvas. In the balance of all my Hudson work, I am amazed when I look back over the entire shoot how extra-ordinary I found these "common" #landscapes to be, and often I found spectacular expression of my #vision in nothing more than twigs, reeds, and weeds.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, June 9, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #88:
HUDSON RIVER #88: Another aspect of working with 2 and 3 panel images, besides trying to define a particular place, was the ability to capitalize on #textures and #lines within the #forest to create an extended scrim. In this case, "The Best View of Route #9," refers to a state highway that is barely visible behind that scrim effect of the #trees. As you have seen in earlier #images posted in this blog, I am visually fascinated by the way this dense, diverse forest is intermixed, almost entwined. By widening the field of view with multiple panels, it some times becomes more abstract than defining. This image and the next I will post seem a bit like a #JacksonPollock painting to me.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, June 2, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #87:
HUDSON RIVER #87: As you can see from my recent posts, I regularly used the randomly aligned #panorama as the #HudsonRiver commission progressed. In another blog I write, SILK ROAD, I have stated that these images are not intended to be perfectly seamed. All that matters to me is the visual flow of one panel to another. Many of these #diptychs and #triptychs I used to describe expansive space where a single image just did not communicate the same sense of place. Because this was being done with #film, not digital, it was always curious to see (after processing) what alignments and exposures worked and actually had a flow, and in which ones the transition was just too jarring.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, May 26, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #86:
HUDSON RIVER #86: I am sure there are some readers of this blog that have been thinking, "really, how wild can these lands be so close to New York City?" Well, this is #Doodletown Valley in #BearMountain State Park. People began living here in the late 1700's, and for a period of time they became so reclusive they never went "out", so most others did not even know they were there - a bit like the "John Whites" that lived in isolation in the Jersey marshlands. Five mountains feed into this valley, which has 3 streams and abundant wildlife, but NO roads. Nonetheless, people continued to live here until 1965. On the day I made this image it was raining hard. The density of vapor in the atmosphere increases with distance and appears more blue. The trees in the #foreground are quite crisp and clear, but as you follow the trees "back" into the valley, they "blur" in the downpour of rain and become amazing / beautiful "blobs" of color with no definition.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, May 19, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #85:
HUDSON RIVER #85: As mentioned earlier in this blog, I believe that for a #photographer to really understand a place, it is important to spend time observing it EVERY day - so you can appreciate the nuances as well as the obvious. It also helps if you can even GET out there on some days! To that end my fancy roof-platform van had oversized, studded snow tires and that, along with the magical keyring-of-access, allowed me to be in some pretty amazing places at just THE right moment - the first rays of sun were starting to melt the snow-laden branches in the forest and a chilly breeze had already knocked some of the snow-caps off of the cattails in the #Iona marshland.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, May 12, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #84:
HUDSON RIVER #84: The unique #biodiversity of the #HudsonRiverValley is stimulated by the "warmer" #water of the #tidal flow exchange that comes nearly 70-miles up the #river. However, it is the heat, humidity, and rain of summer that brings this cornucopia of life into full bloom. The #woodlands become dense and nearly impassable, trails disappear, and #creeks and #wetlands often expand. Underfoot it is a wet, squishy environment with rocks and decaying leaves creating slippery conditions for trying to navigate anywhere. I often found myself using my #tripod like a walking stick, and more than once it saved me from sprawling on the forest floor. Nonetheless, I did occasionally go down, and one afternoon following an unanticipated "seating", I realized it was a gift - there in front of me was all that biodiversity smiling back - and I would have walked right over it.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, May 5, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #83:
HUDSON RIVER #83: An amazing micro-niche of mixed #climates supports the #biodiversity of the #HudsonRiver, so I spent a good bit of thought in choosing subjects where that biodiversity was reflected in the #image. I was grateful for the keyring-of-access because some of the richest, most unusual places were the farthest off-trail. In the winter, a more "open" forest made navigating possible, but in the heat of summer, the "biodiversity" showed itself with a vengeance and made any passage a bushwack of epic proportion. Often times I would return to spots I had been before and "knew", only to find them virtually unrecognizable and buried in the overgrowth of summer #flora.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, April 28, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #82:
HUDSON RIVER #82: Another gift of the magical keyring-of-access was that it allowed me to be many places the public could easily reach and enjoy, BUT at hours that were closed to the public - particularly dawn and dusk. One such location was #Iona Island, part of #BearMountain State Park. Iona is an island in the #Hudson that is connected by bridging and because it is at a temperature "midway" on the river, Iona Island supports some of the greatest biodiversity in all of North America. Although it is in the "north", warmer tidal waters are carried upriver during tidal flux, and to Iona's benefit. Iona supports a large freshwater tidal marsh (pictured here), and bald eagle population, northern forest trees, and rocks with moss on one side and cactus on the other. Being allowed to spend a night or two next to the river in this location was a unique privilege!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, April 21, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #81:
HUDSON RIVER #81: The ring of gate keys was an amazing thing to have. After van camping at a remote group of small #lakes all night in a storm, I was out taking pictures early in the morning, and I was quite a surprise to a state trooper on a drive patrol. As this was a restricted area of the watershed, of course he stopped to question me, and when learned I was there WITH my van overnight, he definitely wanted to see it, ...AND I wanted to get my letter of permission. As we approached the van, I was told to stand back and he walked up to the shotgun-side window and looked in. My huge bundle of keys was on the seat, to which he gasped, then turned to me smilingly and said, "Who the f^&k are you?" That was followed by the comment that the only other key ring he had ever seen like that belonged to Nash Castro. LUV'D IT! Before he left, he offered me some advice about where to get good pictures. TY Mr. State Trooper!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, April 14, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #80:
HUDSON RIVER #80: The network of roads through these parks was substantial and went into places most people never saw. Off-road was a bushwack nightmare with extremely dense foliage and very few game trails to follow. I thought the road system would be valuable to my work, particularly if I could access it with my van and be allowed to stay (self-contained) overnight. When I asked the Lila Wallace Fund if they had any "friends" that might help me with this, I was introduced to Nash Castro, at that time, Director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. Nash was VERY interested in the project, listened to my reasons for wanting access, AND when he saw my tricked-out van, he gave me a set of keys on a ring the size of a softball, and told me that they would open EVERY gate in ANY park under his domain. He also gave me a letter to show police patrols I might encounter, explaining my project and that I had permission to be there.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, April 7, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #79:
HUDSON RIVER #79: To the east of #WestHaverstraw a huge contiguous wild area is created by #SterlingForest State Park, and the even larger #Harriman State Park with its significant shoreline appendage, #BearMountain State Park. A maize of forests, rolling but abruptly steep mountains, and a myriad of lakes and ponds, these parks are managed by the #Palisades Interstate Park Commission as both #habitat and valued #watershed. For reasons of fire protection and law enforcement, quite a complex of gated-access, VERY rural roads have been created connecting critical sections. I discovered these by walking many of them, BUT I knew my walks barely scratched the surface...
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, March 31, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #78:
HUDSON RIVER #78: Many people expect that the mountains and valleys of the #Catskills and #Adirondacks are wild places, and indeed they are. But what many do NOT realize is how vast and "wild" lower sections of the #HudsonRiverValley really are. There are many parks and reserves on both sides of the river, but the western shore features some of the those with the most encompassing scale. Coming out of #Manhattan, when you cross the #GeorgeWashingtonBridge you can connect to the #Palisades Interstate Parkway, north, and in a relatively short drive reach #TallmanMountain, #ClauslandMountain, and #Blauvelt State Parks all of which define the Hudson shore below #Nyack. A little farther to the north #Rockland and #HighTor State Park similarly define the shoreline below #WestHaverstraw. ALL of these parks together, however, would still not equal the scale of the next to come, two of the "crown jewels" of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, March 24, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #77:
HUDSON RIVER #77: While it is clearly the intensity of the #fall #color that defines some of the most striking images in this blog / portfolio, the extended time I spent on this project taught me to appreciate the nuances of my subject as well. As someone who moved to the #HudsonRiverValley from southern California, one of the "differences" between the two #environments immediately noted was the cold, WET winter. Once the warmth of spring begins to dispel that cold, there is a palpable buzz of life (and insects) that returns. No where did it seem more ethereal and full of promise to me than in the green haze of the forest leafing-out in the warmth of the sun. For my readers on the East Coast, I know you are waiting for this moment after this winter!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, March 17, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #76:
HUDSON RIVER #76: Another lesson I learned from my commission to #photograph the #HudsonRiver, was to ALWAYS spend committed time in a project - preferably over as long an expanse as possible. For the work on the #Hudson, I lived in the valley nearly two years, taking pictures on a daily basis (if they offered themselves up). In doing this, my images became more diverse, richer, and more informed because they appreciate the seasonal variations, and the nuances of subtle things besides the more obvious. For the rest of my career, I dedicated multiple years to each of my projects and was always rewarded for my willingness to do so.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, March 10, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #75:
HUDSON RIVER #75: I was amazed to learn that because the tide reaches all the way up the #HudsonRiverValley to #Albany, it brings with it "southern" species to intermix with the more northerly flora / fauna and that makes the mid-river #Hudson one of the most biologically diverse places in North America. At the time of my Hudson commission, I was also doing personal work with a 4x5 view #camera that would eventually be published as the #ORDERFROMCHAOS #portfolios. Something I learned about #color while doing that work, greatly informed the pictures I was making in the #HudsonValley and also capitalized on the intense #biodiversity of the area. The larger format #cameras, including the 6x7 I was using, record an immense amount of detail. In the case of dense forest and brush, the color of individual twigs and branches become part of a larger color "haze" in the eye of the camera, and in the more barren fall and winter forests, those thickets of hazy color offered up some pretty fantastic hues.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, March 3, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #74:
HUDSON RIVER #74: Thanks to #EliotPorter, something that I learned to observe was the #vibrancy of #color during and after a rain. The overcast sky eliminates #highlight / #shadow relationships and allows the entire #focus of the image to become THE COLOR. The rain also washes dust off the leaves, #saturating their color, and as is the case here, a rain of many days has saturated the tree trunks giving them a #tonal richness they might not have in drier conditions. One of the reasons I moved from a 4x5 view #camera to medium format cameras was the smaller cameras gave me large camera #optics within a system that was more durable and easier to use in marginal field conditions.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, February 24, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #73:
HUDSON RIVER #73: To work on the #HudsonRiver commission I received from the #LilaAchesonWallaceFund ( @Wallacefdn ) in 1984, I actually MOVED into a home near mid-river, between the towns of #Garrison and #ColdSprings. I believed what the #HudsonRiverPainters believed - the beauty of the valley was not its grandness, but rather its remarkable light and VERY fleeting moments, so you had TO BE THERE 24/7. As a #photographer, I was certainly trying to bear witness to the unique aspects of this specific #landscape, but I was also working with a "new" #Pentax 6x7 camera, and printing on #Cibachrome materials with my longtime friend and Master Printer, #MichaelWilder, so we both were trying to stretch the limits of our equipment / materials. Here, the #exposure, #color range, and highlight-shadow relationship are pushed just about as far as #film / #wet darkroom tech could take them. As to the fleeting "Hudson light" moment, the frost vanished as soon as it was touched by the sunlight....
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, February 17, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #72:
HUDSON RIVER #72: Many of the fields "cleared" in the forests surrounding the #HudsonRiverValley have been maintained as open land for hundreds of years. Some present day owners run their property like a farm, hosting a considerable array of animals. Others have created some remarkable gardens and paths. One of the more unusual uses that I discovered was a complete 18-hole golf course, privately owned, spectacularly landscaped, and impeccably groomed.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, February 10, 2014

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #71:
HUDSON RIVER #71: Another feature of the #HudsonRiverValley that I always found surprising was that once you were just a small distance from the river corridor, even around the larger cities, the landscape became truly rural. #Castles and large #estates with views gave way to large #barns and different kinds of views. Roads would wind through the woods for long enough to feel you might be lost, then suddenly a farm would appear that had been operational in its present state for 100-years, or so - that is, by the "new" owners - the pastures and any "historic" structures might well date to the 1600's.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, February 3, 2014
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #70:
HUDSON RIVER #70: As someone that grew up on the West Coast, one of the things I most enjoyed about working on the commission to #photograph the #HudsonRiverValley, was my encounter with #American #history: #GeorgeWashington apparently slept at nearly every historic inn in the entire valley (if you believe the signage); the writer, #WashingtonIrving, and the Hudson River School of painters made the valley (and its light) their setting and inspiration; and, the Dutch-influenced names were well in place before the #AmericanRevolution, because the Dutch were living there in the 1600's. My favorite reminders of this history were finding the remnants of old stone walls just randomly running through deep woods, and somewhat regularly finding survey markers dated in the 1700's pounded into prominent rocks.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 27, 2014
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #69:
HUDSON RIVER #69: Back to the less-visually indulgent aspects of the commission, I began to wind the endless roads and follow the long driveways to places on the #river, or that viewed it - knocking on doors with no introduction, explaining my project, and asking if I might view their view. Many wished to remain private and politely said no, others offered up some pretty remarkable settings. This is one of the MOST historical points on the river: #Newburg is in the far distance, between the mountains; #Washington encamped there during the #AmericanRevolution. The mountain to the left is #StormKing, site of a famous legal battle over a proposed nuclear plant. Then, further left is #WestPoint and the bend in the river across which the military stretched a chain to impede #British ships trying to supply their troops upriver during the #Revolution. Ah yes, and there is that #FredericChurch sunset...
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 20, 2014
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #68:
HUDSON RIVER #68: For those that have followed this #blog, I hope you have enjoyed this "holiday" portfolio I have been showing that reveals my fascination with the #forest and #trees. Many of these images WERE part of the work that I created during my #LiLaWallace #Fund commission to photograph in the #HudsonRiverValley, but NONE of what you just saw made the edit for the exhibit or the book. If you look back through these #images, you might also note my incredible detail of the forest depends on moments of little or no #wind movement - good luck with that! Some days there is no such thing as a STILL moment, but I always try to visually resolve something regardless of the challenges. Shielding my #camera / #tripod so it is not blown about as well, I just let the forest dance for me...
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 13, 2014
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #67:
HUDSON RIVER #67: As a #photographer, I have always enjoyed stretching the limits of my materials - #camera, #film, whatever - and within any individual #print / #image, my favorites are always the ones that do that to an extreme. Before #Adobe #darkroom and the ability to adjust #color, #tone, and #contrast as easily as it can be done now, getting extreme-range #exposures on film / print were always challenging. @Cibachrome #papers and #transparency film in particular have exaggerated contrast by their nature, so keeping detail in both the #shadow and a bright #highlight was always a little edgy. Transparency film does NOT have the #exposure #latitude of color #negative film, so if you wanted a good print, you HAD to have a PERFECT exposure. As importantly, if you wanted to have #vibrant color, the exposure was critical as well. A little darker, or a little lighter and something would get lost. When it works, it is a beautiful thing....
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, January 6, 2014
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #66:
HUDSON RIVER #66: Over the years of my career, these #forest #abstractions have always appealed to my workshop students and other admirers, who inevitably ask, "how do you do this... how do you see structure in the confusing density of the deep woods?" Part of that answer this blog has already revealed - I am not making a record of some specific place in the forest, I am simply witnessing what stands before me and #VISUALLY #EDITING it within the rectangle of my #viewfinder until a certain rhythm is established. The larger part of the answer to these images is more "cosmic" (for lack of a better description) - I have always "felt" the "presence of the forest" - its collective mass of living things. And some part of me believes that they are/we are ALL interconnected LITERALLY with each other. These "busy" forest images of mine confirm that for me, because in the graphics of the camera #lens and my #compositions it is difficult to tell where one thing ends and another begins.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, December 30, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #65:
HUDSON RIVER #65: I was fortunate enough to be mentored by #EliotPorter, color photography's equivalent of #AnselAdams, and it was Eliot that helped me to better "understand" #color and its relationship to #light. However, it was the painter #AlHeld that taught me to use the relationships of light and color to bend dimensional space. The large ground glass of the 4x5 #viewcamera upon which you view the subject is a very specific rectangle. I was concerned with every tiny detail within that space and these forest abstractions I have been presenting are the most complex examples of that obsession. Of note, my entire career of images has been shot full-frame, regardless of camera format. I have ALWAYS printed the entire frame; NO cropping - ALL seen in camera!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, December 23, 2013

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #64:
HUDSON RIVER #64: One of the characteristics of this #HudsonRiver commission that would carry over into my life-long career was that I preferred to work on projects for an extended duration of time. Being able to photograph a subject over many weeks, months or years, allows the work to grow more meaningful because of the relationship of the collective images. This small series of deep-forests abstracts I am presenting grew over the 2-years of the shoot, so beyond the structural compositions using the line and forms of the forest, there is the added layer of seasonal change, which affects ALL colors and the quality of the light.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, December 16, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #63:
HUDSON RIVER #63: The essence of these images in this short series involves layers. To me these are not so much pictures of some #landscape as they are layers of line, form, and color. What I am "seeing" is not a place. It is a small rectangle (my #viewfinder) where a certain rhythm has been established between the layers. I feel a greater kinship with painting through these #compositions as their creation reflects my photographic response to the concepts of #painters like #JacksonPollock and #JulesOlitski. In my more documentary images, clearly I have "crafted" a point of view. These images craft themselves. I have little to do with the traditional concepts of composing. During the creation of these images, I just move the #camera and watch the ground glass. I know when I have "arrived" because it takes my breath away.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, December 9, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #62:
HUDSON RIVER #62: As I have just enjoyed a birthday, my gift to myself (and hopefully you) is to post a series of images based on this busy-ness view of the woods, a POV I established early in my career, and the use of which runs through my many projects. These images were NOT part of the #ORDERFROMCHAOS portfolios, nor were they especially pertinent to the #Hudsonriver commission on which I was working, although all of them were made in the Hudson RiverValley. These images were indulgences while working in the field, done more for the pleasure of the color and spatial relationships, than for the description of any particular place.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, December 2, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #61:
HUDSON RIVER #61: While working on my #commission from the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund to photograph the #HudsonRiverValley, I was also completing a portfolio of work I had begun in the early 70's on the West Coast. #ORDER-FROM-CHAOS would ultimately be published as 18-30" x40" #Cibachrome prints, all quite specifically made with a 4x5 view camera and transparency film. For reason having to do with seasonal weather affecting my view camera use, my Hudson river work was being shot with the smaller Pentax 6x7, but the challenge/mystery of finding that unique place in the busy-ness of the woods to bring color and spacial relations together into mind-bending compositions was irresistible even with the smaller format.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, November 25, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #60:
HUDSON RIVER #60: After wandering through various rooms in an #Adirondack "country" #store, I exited into the backyard where they were selling #plants. Lots of small sheds were around as well, housing various things - tools, fertilizers, plant food, etc... I suppose this was inevitable! But, it should give us all pause-to-think about how these products serve us vs. how they affect our food chain and our long-term health. There's that #RachelCarson stuff ringing around in my head again!!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, November 18, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #59:
HUDSON RIVER #59: Inside this particular store in the #Adirondack #Mountains, I found it much like the outside... a kind of organized clutter of an amazing variety of objects. Virtually everything in this shot is for sale, including the cabinets, chests of drawers, tables and chairs. Much of it has also been “locally” made. These "arrangements" flowed thru many small rooms, eventually leading outside to some other small structures...
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, November 11, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #58:
HUDSON RIVER #58: Not all shops in the #Adirondack #Mountains sport taxidermy animals on their front porch as in the last 2 posts. This one is using #seasonal #color and a lively (busy) storefront design to attract attention. It also underscores an elemental truth about having such a business in a remote community environment – it helps to sell a little bit of everything.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, November 4, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #57:
HUDSON RIVER #57: WHAAAAT?!! Welcome to the #Adirondacks! I certainly wanted to stop and ponder any shop that would have its front porch guarded / graced by a #wolf, an albino #deer, and a large black #bear. I think the wolf is specifically workin' the lamps, and I caught a good-cop / bad-cop vibe going on between the smiley deer and his buddy in the background... What are they selling, and how do I get into the store?!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, October 28, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #56:
HUDSON RIVER #56: Another universal bond of all small communities is the struggle to survive financially. Seasonal traffic is EVERYTHING and storeowners need something clever to attract a visitor’s attention... something that will get them out of their car and bring them into the store. There are many different ideas about how to do that.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, October 21, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #55:
HUDSON RIVER #55: The #Adirondack #Mountains get hot and humid in the #summer, but being #water-rich, #forested, and slightly cooler due to #elevation, they are an escape from the swelter of larger cities downriver on the #Hudson #River. Bigger #lakes (as shown in previous posts #45-47) attract #boating, but smaller lakes are #swimming holes that serve as community #beaches, or are part of a “camp” compound.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, October 14, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #54:
HUDSON RIVER #54: One of the unique aspects of enjoying the #Adirondack #Mountains are the #historic #summercamps. These are usually large #land #holdings that often include small #lakes. Some #camps are exclusively for children. Some camps are generational family compounds. Some camps you would have to search for to find, others are a bit more visible – note the differently “themed” cabins.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, October 7, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #53:
HUDSON RIVER #53: Some people go to remote places to lead private lives. Numerous roads in the #Adirondack and #Catskill #Mountains that adjoin the #HudsonRiverValley are “off-the-grid” and more often than not connect to some “unusual” locations. I enjoy #WashingtonIrving as a #writer but having read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle," I was always a little edgy exploring these paths less taken.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, September 30, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #52:
HUDSON RIVER #52: Unique people choose to live in more challenging and remote communities. In the #Adirondacks, homeowners that can afford to, often indulge the history of the area by maintaining beautiful '#generational #homes and #yards. I was constantly struck by ways that personal touches, whether artful or comic, helped create a sense of warmth and welcome, (and humor).
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline
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Monday, September 23, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #51:
HUDSON RIVER #51: Whether U r in the East or the West, to live in more remote locations that r affected by substantial seasonal weather inspires quite a range of survival skills. Most of the towns in the Adirondack Mountains r pretty small – hamlets – and people living in them must deal with some serious economic fluctuations with the seasons. Regardless of the coast, this ALWAYS makes for some interesting displays and signage to attract the public. Never personally thought about putting custard and mustard together!
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, September 16, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #50:
HUDSON RIVER #50: The high peaks of the #Adirondacks are heavily '#forested. The maze of #trails is generally pretty #rugged, especially when it is wet which is a good bit of the time. Root systems of #trees have actually become spectacular stairs in many places. Occasionally, openings in the #forest, or #rock ledge outcrops provide dazzling #viewpoints. 
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Monday, September 2, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #49:
HUDSON RIVER #49: Below the summits of the #AdirondackMountains but well above the #HudsonRiverValley hundreds of #streams coalesce in the #watershed that feeds the #river. In what is called the “high peaks section”, #MtMarcy – at 5,343-feet, the tallest #summit in the state – and others, host amazing #trails, many that are #historic and have been maintained by volunteer groups such as the #AdirondackMountainClub for generations of users. Mt. Marcy is also home to #LakeTear-of-the-Clouds the highest "source" of the #Hudson, and romantically perceived as the river's point of origin.
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Monday, August 26, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #48:
HUDSON RIVER #48: Regardless of my #philosophical musings about #RachelCarson and her concept of #collective “downstream” #toxics expressed in the previous few posts, the #Adirondack's are a vibrant #mountain #ecosystem. The ample #water #resources support #beautiful #forests and extensive #wetland #habitats laced with miles of #trails. And if you #hike these trails you will certainly come to understand the description “extensive #WETland #habitat”.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, August 19, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #47:
HUDSON RIVER #47: With so many #boats and #boaters on the #lakes in the #AdirondackMountains during the hot summer months, the impact of their presence accumulates - and not always in good ways - this is the stuff you can see. An astounding amount of #petrochemicals "leak" into the #ground / #groundwater; nice #lawns / #gardens use #pesticides and #fertilizers which #rain #runoff carries into the #lakes and #streams; and recent research in #mud along the shores of the #HudsonRiver show #antibiotics have accumulated, flushed down the drains of homes #upriver. I created images like this as a #visual #metaphor for how small things 3accumulate and become a larger problem as time passes. #RachelCarson was one of the 1st to understand the #implications of this on human health.
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Monday, August 12, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #46:
HUDSON RIVER #46: As I grew increasingly aware of the #boat #culture established on the numerous #lakes of the #AdirondackMountains and upper #HudsonRiverValley, I also began to understand it as a visual metaphor for concepts #RachelCarson put forward in "#SilentSpring". She spoke of the "quiet #poisoning of ourselves" that is done by the slow accumulation of #toxins in OUR systems because we #dump them into the #environment, they don't #breakdown, and they come back to us in the #food / #water #cycle. Here on these #lakes - all in the #headwaters of the #HudsonRiver - some locations seemed to moderate the impact of people and #boating, and others were just overrun by it.
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Monday, August 5, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #45:
HUDSON RIVER #45: #JamesLovelock 's "Gaia", #RachelCarson 's "Silent Spring", and #AldoLeopold 's, "Sand County Almanac", were #books that resonated in my core when I read them, and their message about our relationship to our #environment was influencing my #photographic growth during my 2-year commission to #photograph the #HudsonRiverValley. #Downriver I engaged new subject matter: #architecture, #industry, and #logging. Quite different from the pure #landscape work that had so far defined my #career. Now, the #summer idyll of the #Adirondack's - escaping the heat by getting out on a #lake in your boat - caused me to think about all those #lakes, all those people, and all those boats... in the #headwaters of the #Hudson.
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Monday, July 29, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #44:
HUDSON RIVER #44: As my #explorations took me further and further into the #Adirondack's, source of the #HudsonRiver, #water asserted its presence everywhere. #Streams and larger #rivers in the Adirondack's connected a vast system of #lakes strewn throughout the heavily #forested and ever-steepening #terrain. I had no idea upstate #NewYork had such a #boat culture. ALL lakes had boats of some form and the #shorelines of the larger, more publicly accessible lakes were usually populated with a lot of #homes, #docks and #boathouses. Lake "culture" varied widely, however, with some communities choosing to remain quiet and discreet, while others developed commercial retail #bars and #restaurants to attract #boaters.
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Monday, July 22 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #43:
HUDSON RIVER #43: I continued to explore the #HudsonRiver past #Albany and #Troy following the #river #valley toward its #headwaters in the #AdirondackMountains. As I moved north, #townships became much smaller, and #lakes began to appear everywhere as the #terrain grew more #mountainous. The #history of the valley was very apparent in many of these townships where #beautiful, well-kept, #multi-generational #homes reflected unique period #architectural styles. In this case, a very large family home next to the river has become a most enjoyable #inn while maintaining original architectural integrity.
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Monday, July 15, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #42:
HUDSON RIVER #42: In my exploration of the #HudsonRiverValley, my encounter with #industry - and particularly #logging - in the area around #Troy and #Albany proved a #seminal point of learning that would play out on a much larger scale later in my career. I found the visual impact of the logging process stunning AND I began to learn something about #forestry. As I followed the #HudsonRiver farther north to its source in the Adirondack's, I came to understand that as #beautiful as these #forests were, they had been "harvested" for so many #generations there was virtually no "old growth" - much of the northeastern forests are 2nd and 3rd generation trees.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, July 8, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #41:
HUDSON RIVER #41: Not far to the north of #Albany, the #HudsonRiverValley winds its way into the #AdirondackMountains, its #headwater. Coming from the west, the #Sierra's and the #Rockies were "mountains" to me - the #Adirondacks barely topped 5,000'-feet, so I had no idea what an amazing #wild #domain they were. Although not especially tall, they were #rugged, #lake-filled, and laced with some of the most remarkable #trails I had ever walked. They were also covered by the vast northern #forests that stretched across most of the northeast to the #Canadian #border. The #logs filling the #mills to the south were "harvested" here...
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Monday, July 1, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #40:
HUDSON RIVER #40: Looking back over 45-years of work, I recognize certain #prescient moments that introduced me to subjects which I would explore in MUCH greater detail than I ever expected, later in my #photographic #career. In the more industrialized corridor of the #HudsonRiver from #Albany, north - I encountered large scale #logging and #milling for the 1st time as a working #photographer. I had seen #clearcut #assaults on the #forests of the #Pacific coast, but I had yet to photograph them, so it was at the foot of the #AdirondackMountains in #NY that I began my life-long visual study of the way we "manage" our #forests.
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Monday, June 24, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #39:
HUDSON RIVER #39: Historically, the #Hudson river at #Albany was an important northern industrial junction where products were collected, mainly for shipment downriver to support a growing #Manhattan. Some of those goods came by water from the #GreatLakes and the #StLawrence, others were natural #resources carved out of the #Adirondacks and northern #wildlands and brought south to market. Initially, things were transported by boat on the river, but eventually rail lines on either side of the valley and a major north/south interstate highway carried the commerce. The public focus on the Hudson then shifted to the appreciation of its #beauty, #history, and the desire to see it #environmentally cleaned up.
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Monday, June 17, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #38:
HUDSON RIVER #38: #Albany, the capitol of #NewYork state straddles the #HudsonRiver about 70-miles upriver from its mouth in the #Atlantic #Ocean. A #landscape of rolling #hills, #forests and #farms turns #urban and #industrial at the edges of the river. In the 80's, many of these industrial uses were #historical and they were slowly being replaced and/or cleaned-up. Albany is also the northernmost point of a VERY unique #habitat / #watershed: perhaps surprisingly, the #HudsonRiverValley has some of the greatest #biodiversity in the entire U.S. even though it is as far north as it is. The decline of the #river is SO slight, the ocean #tides flow UP THE RIVER all the way to Albany, and that exchange brings warmer #currents and unexpected #species (like #cactus!)
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, June 10, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #37:
HUDSON RIVER #37: The roads on the east side of the #HudsonRiverValley wound thru #forest-covered rolling hills dotted with small #towns and #farms. On the west side of the river, it was more precipitous. The west shore of the Hudson river near #Manhattan #Island is known as the #Palisades, farther north you enter #BearMountainStatePark, #HarrimanStatePark, and #WestPoint (Military Academy) which sits at the foot of the #HudsonHighlands and #StormKingMountain. After that, the #Catskills rise. A favored location of the Hudson River #painters, the Catskills are not especially tall or vast, but they ARE densely #forested, stunningly steep and rugged, and flowing with #water in every nook and cranny so the #landscape offers some spectacular #waterfalls. It also offers some "spectacular" roads, among some of the most unusual I have ever driven, that took me to some equally unusual places.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, June 3, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #36:
HUDSON RIVER #36: The #HudsonRiverValley is laced with roads - some are #highways, some #rural, some #historic. During the two years I worked on the #commission from the #LilaAchesonWallaceFund to #photograph the river valley, I lived on #IndianBrookRoad, an #historical #stagecoach #trail between #Manhattan and #Albany, and residents REFUSED to allow it to be paved, as "historically" it was only a gravel bed. Following those roads - many of them less than clearly marked, and some not even on maps - led me to many amazing places and surprisingly often it was the road itself that became my subject.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, May 20, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #35:
HUDSON RIVER #35: People wanted "open-space" around them for many reasons. At #Manitoga, American #designer, #RusselWright, wanted to blend his home into the "natural" #environment of his property and "orchestrate" trails thru various sections of his land in a kind of managed #wildness. Some who wanted to #farm #organic #food, #flower #gardens, or raise larger #animals simply managed #historic #meadows that had been cut from the #forest. A select few who had the wealth used their expanse of #property to create showcase gardens.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, May 20, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #34:
HUDSON RIVER #34: The dense #forests and #mountainous shores of the #HudsonRiver create an #impression of close space, so I was always surprised exploring random #backroads to discover large open spaces where families had #farms with sizeable #pastures, small #herds of various #animals, and some astounding #organic #gardens. THE LIGHT visited them as well.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, May 13, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #33:
HUDSON RIVER #33: THE LIGHT also added #dimension (layers) and #scale (sense of distance) to the densely #forested #mountains surrounding the #HudsonRiver, revealing a complex #landscape of #summits and #streams all feeding into the collective #watershed. Sometimes a random moment of #illumination was as humorous as it was #beautiful or ominous - and I thought of those sunlit horses in the #AnselAdams #photograph of #Mt.Whitney.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, May 6, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #32:
HUDSON RIVER #32: As I previously noted, THE LIGHT was democratic and it taught me a significant #photographic lesson I have used throughout my career - combining formal beauty with unpleasant subject matter, not to "soften" its impact, but rather to maximize its threatening presence. Here THE LIGHT of a cold winter day engulfs #IndianPoint. An old and controversial #nuclear power plant, Indian Point is a landmark on the river. Of my many shots from many angles, none resonates so strongly forbidding as this one and the "beauty" of the image compels me to look at it.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, April 29, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #31:
HUDSON RIVER #31: At this point in my life I had barely raised a plant, let alone considered #gardening, but because of my #commission to #photograph the #HudsonRiverValley and the access it gave me to some amazing gardens, I began to see the beauty of a garden. Of course THE LIGHT was often there following me around, making sure "I got it." It worked! I have since become a lover and grower of many gardens and can't imagine a world without them.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, April 22, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #30:
HUDSON RIVER #30: Sometimes the way THE LIGHT graced the #landscape was not as relevant as how soon its warming rays would get to me and dispel the freezing cold, early morning shadows around me.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, April 15, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #29:
HUDSON RIVER #29: Sometimes THE LIGHT created dynamic #dimensions to the dense #forests in the #HudsonRiverValley as in image #18, previously posted; other times THE LIGHT was diffused in the humid air and barely present, as in #22; for me, it was the fleeting moments of light brought by passing #weather - constantly changing random illumination of colorful objects and dense, ever-shifting skeins and layers was VERY hallucinatory.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, April 8, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #28:
HUDSON RIVER #28: Sometimes THE LIGHT so infused the #landscape it seemed to be emanating from within the #foliage. Looking at these images in retrospect, I see many of them that are clearly just recordings of THE LIGHT, the essence of the actual landscape is lost in the chaos of deep shadows and luminous, glowing highlights.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, April 1, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #27:
HUDSON RIVER #27: The humid atmosphere of the #HudsonRiverValley often creates a hazy, glowing light that colors the #landscape. It was recognition of THE LIGHT that brought the Hudson River #painters out of their studios to work "in-the-field". I loved the democracy of THE LIGHT as it fell equally on mansions, mountains, highways, houses, power plants and all the odd things humans do in-between.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, March 25, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #26:
HUDSON RIVER #26: As the months went by, word of mouth and small #exhibits of the #images I was making generated unexpected opportunities. Some VERY #private #estates ostensibly invited me to see their view of the #HudsonRiverValley. However, once comfortable with my presence, they often allowed me to explore their property. Sometimes this revealed #historic #architecture, and stunning #gardens developed by #generational families - all bathed in THE LIGHT.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, March 18, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #25:
HUDSON RIVER #25: Several other moments of discovery occurred at THIS site. Visually, formally - it was dealing with the pole... but more importantly, this was an #historically significant #riverfront. When I showed the image to the @Wallace Fund and explained the site #legacy, they acquired the property and #restored it as a #city #park. Seeing a single picture do this was VERY empowering... as I believe my career reflects.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, March 11, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #24:
HUDSON RIVER #24: The #HudsonRiver #commission expanded my #photographic #vision of the #landscape in many ways. One was the luxury of visiting and re-visiting locations on a daily basis throughout the year. My #camera was witness to remarkable change. Eventually I exhibited some of these images side-by-side within the same frame, as together they expressed more about the dynamic of the valley than any one shot.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, March 4, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #23:
HUDSON RIVER #23: I have always believed #photographic #vision changes as the #technology changes, allowing us to do more AND in places we have not done it previously. Moving to a PENTAX medium format camera in the field allowed me to shoot multiple #exposures quickly. The #HudsonRiverValley was famous for its #light, but sometimes that "moment" of light was just a few seconds between #storm #clouds and time was, quite literally, of the essence in making the #picture.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, February 25, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #22:
HUDSON RIVER #22: My new PENTAX medium format system gave me view camera detail, but allowed me to shoot multiple pictures (roll film) in terrible conditions without having to change film. My experience was teaching me that @weather, and the remarkable light of the #HudsonRiverValley were often fleeting events requiring quick work in the field. Lighting was often so subtle, without varied multiple exposures, it would have been difficult to capture.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, February 18, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #21:
HUDSON RIVER #21: As a #photographer, the biodiversity of the #HudsonRiverValley was visible in the infinite textures presented by the #landscape. To visually appreciate that, it was imperative my camera of choice could render such detail. The medium format PENTAX 6x7 did just that, giving me exceptional detail and clarity while at the same time proving functional in #extreme #weather conditions.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, February 11, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #20:
HUDSON RIVER #20: I needed a new camera system that would maintain my large format image quality, but was more functional in extreme conditions. Ask and you shall receive?! #PENTAX announced a new rectangular format camera (6x7) that looked like a 35mm on steroids - so, I wrote Pentax a "cold-call" letter, introducing myself and suggesting my #HudsonRiver commission might prove a great field test for their new system.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @PentaxOnline

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Monday, February 4, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #19:
HUDSON RIVER #19: To visually understand the #HudsonRiver, I wanted to #photograph it in all #seasons and #conditions, but working with my 4x5 #camera was increasingly limiting. Exposing only one large piece of #film at a time while working in a #downpour or during a heavy #snowfall was next to impossible, and the wet-cold caused unrelenting #condensation on the complex glass layers of my #lenses. I needed to rethink my #technical system.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, January 28, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #18:
HUDSON RIVER #18: After the glow of #fall, the #HudsonRiverValley settled into a wet, cold #winter quite different from the arid/dry-powder west. I began to understand Don Juan's concept of 'seeing color in the shadows' - a technique I would frequently revisit in my career. However, the humid, icy conditions presented new problems for my laborious 4x5 #camera and #film. 
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, January 21, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #17:
HUDSON RIVER #17: I decided to live in the #HudsonRiverValley for nearly two years while I #photographed for the commission given me by the #LilaAchesonWallaceFund. As the rhythm in my work developed, I found my #imagery alternating between the #NaturalHabitats of the #river and those mankind created for ourselves. 
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, January 14, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #16:
HUDSON RIVER #16: The opulence of #human presence along the #HudsonRiver is concentrated in #Manhattan and some of the wealthy bedroom communities #upriver, but much of the #valley is comprised of relatively rural, hard working, blue-collar townships. In the mid-80's, many of those were simply trying to survive and they did not have the financial resources to recognize or restore #historic #sites or #structures. 
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, January 7, 2013
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #15:
HUDSON RIVER #15: Interwoven with the #communities and #forests along the #Hudson were the #industrial sites that supported the #rural townships and provided the material #resources and #energy that built #Manhattan, rising ever skyward on an island at the mouth of the river.  
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, December 31, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #14:
HUDSON RIVER #14: So, if you are reading this, the world did not end and a #NewYear is beginning. After the turmoil of 2012, my wish for all of us in #2013 is that we learn to appreciate the beauty of the ordinary and the everyday surrounding us as it is very fleeting and should never be taken for granted. 
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, December 24, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #13:
HUDSON RIVER #13: The more time I spent in the #HudsonRiverValley, the more I began to realize that the Hudson was NOT defined by showcase #architecture or epic events. The essence of the Hudson valley was the #harmony and/or #chaos of everyday things, the stunning beauty of its fleeting #light, and its brilliantly-colored #seasonal change... every rock, brick and brownstone of it oozing American history. 
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, December 17, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #12:
HUDSON RIVER #12: #Castles on prominent rock outcrops and some private islands, rambling grand estates along the river... but not everyone in the #HudsonRiverValley built their home to be seen. #RusselWright's home, #Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center, is one of many designed to be nearly invisible, and others built homes from which to SEE, but not necessarily be seen.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, December 10, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #11:
HUDSON RIVER #11: The historical span of #architecture (and egos) was an essential part of the lore of the #HudsonRiverValley. Some structures, like #RusselWright's #Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center were so integrated with the landscape as to be barely visible. Thank you #SamuelDorskyMuseumOfArt (SDMA) / NYU-New Paltz for reminding us of Wright's collective design legacy with your exhibit.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @DorskyMuseum

 "Russel Wright: The Nature of Design"
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
August 19-December 16, 2012
State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, +1.845.257.3844

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Monday, December 3, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #10:
HUDSON RIVER #10: As my work in the #HudsonRiver progressed, I began to see the valley as visual metaphor of America's historical development; 400-years of shifting ideas, politics and adaptive use. Some, like the Hudson River #Painters and the American #Designer, #Russel Wright, found inspiration in nature. These are Wright-designed chairs on the "kitchen terrace" of #Manitoga / The Russel Wright Design Center, overlooking the quarry pond (#8) and the waterfall (#2).
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @DorskyMuseum

 "Russel Wright: The Nature of Design"
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
August 19-December 16, 2012
State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, +1.845.257.3844

SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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Monday, November 26, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #9:
HUDSON RIVER #9: #StephenShore was another of the #photographers taking part in the commission from the Lila Wallace Foundation to photograph the #HudsonRiver. I was particularly aware of his work/book: UNCOMMON PLACES, and his POV of color relationships in the found and "ordinary" inspired my own similar investigation.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, November 19, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #8:
HUDSON RIVER #8: #Manitoga, the home of American designer, #RusselWright, as viewed from across the quarry pond. Images I was making during my #HudsonRiver commission from the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund were beginning to acknowledge historical human presence and Manitoga reflected its owner/designers unique ideas of building WITH nature.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @DorskyMuseum

"Russel Wright: The Nature of Design"
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
August 19-December 16, 2012
State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, +1.845.257.3844 

SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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Monday, November 12, 2012

THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #7:
HUDSON RIVER #7: The #landscape of the #HudsonRiverValley had been settled for more than 400-years, so it was impossible to ignore things that man had put in place. I opened this series with the #TaconicParkway, here is the #PopolopenBridge connecting #BearMountain to #WestPoint.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd 

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Monday, November 5, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #6:
HUDSON RIVER #6: The extraordinary #biodiversity of the #HudsonRiverValley is visually magnified where the edges of differing #habitats meet. Mountains, lakes, swampy depressions, marshlands, and meadow breaks in the forest offer varying textures and colors as #seasons change. The American #designer, #RusselWright, maintained an open meadow on the trail system he built throughout his Hudson valley property so one could view the spectacle of that intermixing. 
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @DorskyMuseum 

"Russel Wright: The Nature of Design"
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
August 19-December 16, 2012
State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, +1.845.257.3844 

SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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Monday, October 29, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #5:
HUDSON RIVER #5: The #HudsonRiver is relatively flat, thus the ocean's tidal exchange goes upriver 70 miles to #Albany. This unique intermixing of northern mountain origin, southern tidal mouth and tidal influences makes the Hudson one of the MOST #BIOLOGICALLY #DIVERSE #ecosystems in North America, 2nd only to Smoky Mountain National Park (@GSMR).
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, October 22, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #4:
HUDSON RIVER #4: The Hudson is a landscape of light. To best realize that I felt the need to #photograph on a daily basis, so I moved to the #Garrison / #ColdSpring area along the river for two years. Initially my images reflected my previous work embracing the colors and biological diversity of the fall landscape.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, October 15, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #3:
HUDSON RIVER #3: In 1984, #StephenShore, #WilliamClift and I received a 2-year commission from the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund to photograph the #HudsonRiverValley. This is the #TaconicParkway during a sunrise storm and is pic#3 in a series about this portfolio of work which led to my 1st #Aperture book. Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd

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Monday, October 8, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #2:
HUDSON RIVER #2: While working on my #HudsonRiver commission, I was also awarded a #NewYorkStateCouncilontheArts, #Architecture, #Planning & #Design #Grant to photograph #Manitoga, the home and wild gardens of American designer #RussellWright. Some of those images are now part of an exhibit exploring the designer's concepts. This waterfall is feature of his home/garden/woods integrated design.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd @DorskyMuseum 

 "Russel Wright: The Nature of Design"
SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART
August 19-December 16, 2012
State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, +1.845.257.3844

SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com
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Monday, October 1, 2012
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS #1:
HUDSON RIVER #1: Today I introduce the story of my first major commission and book: THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS (Aperture, 1985). I am going to alternate between this folio of my historical photographs and new images I recently started posting: Pebble Mine - Pictures from Ground Zero. I hope you will enjoy these images across the spectrum of my career.
Photograph © Robert Glenn Ketchum @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd @Wallacefdn @Aperturefnd
THE HUDSON RIVER AND THE HIGHLANDS 
by Robert Glenn Ketchum
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