Philip Hyde (photographer)
Encyclopedia
Philip Hyde was a pioneer landscape photographer and conservationist
. He attended Ansel Adams
' photography program at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art Institute, beginning with the Summer Session in 1946 and enrolling in the full-time professional photography training, the first of its kind, in the Fall of 1947, studying under photographers such as Edward Weston
, Minor White
, Imogen Cunningham
and Dorothea Lange
Hyde became a contributing photographer for the Sierra Club
Annual in 1951. He photographed for This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic Rivers, a 1955 book edited by Wallace Stegner
highlighting a proposed dam on the Green River
in Dinosaur National Monument
in Utah
and Colorado
, Hyde eventually became the primary conservation photographer for the Sierra Club. David Brower commissioned him to photograph for what came to be known as "battle books,"that helped the Sierra Club lead a coalition of environmental groups to establish or expand numerous national parks, wilderness areas and national seashores. This series of books the Sierra Club called The Exhibit Format Series. The most well-known photographers for the series were Ansel Adams
, Eliot Porter
and Philip Hyde. The Exhibit Formata Series helped bring national attention to the Sierra Club and the cause of conservation and popularized the coffee table photography book paving the way for thousands of books of this type in the years since.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the US Bureau of Reclamation proposed two dams in the Colorado River
on either end of the Grand Canyon
. The Sierra Club published a book called Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon in 1964 in a successful campaign to turn public opinion against these dam projects that threatened the integrity of the wild river and its canyon. Hyde was the primary photographer. This book reshaped the image of the Grand Canyon for Americans and triggered an outpouring of support and letters from all over the world to prevent the flooding of the canyon. Hyde's photographs appeared in campaigns to create North Cascades National Park, Redwood National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, High Sierra wilderness, the Wind River Range, Canyonlands, islands off Puerto Rico, Big Sur, Kings Canyon, Sequioa National Park, Denali National Park, Tongass National Forest, the Navajo Tribal Parks, the Oregon Cascades, and many other national treasures.
Hyde said, "For every place there will always be people that want to exploit it, and there will always be people—hopefully—that want to save it and keep it as it is. Even with the risk of inviting the crowds into paradise, better to publish your photographs and rally the troops. What’s in the frame of the photograph matters artistically, to be sure, but what’s outside the frame can destroy it."
Hyde began making color photographs in 1948. In 1949, the California School of Fine Arts photography department supplemented its usual black and white training with a color photography class that Philip Hyde attended. The Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series began to introduce color photography to their books in 1962. In Wildness Is The Preservation of the World by Eliot Porter and Island In Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula were the first two nature photography books ever to contain color photographic reproductions. Philip Hyde's color photographs also appeared in Time and The River Flowing: Grand Canyon, Navajo Wildlands and other Sierra Club books before the 1970s. After spending time in the desert and discovering improvements in the dye transfer printing process, in the 1970s Hyde gradually transitioned completely away from black-and-white photography to focus solely on color. He is well-known for collaborating with author Edward Abbey
on the desert classic, "Slickrock: The Canyon Country of Southeast Utah," (1971) yet another Sierra Club book published to highlight the threats to wilderness, in this case, the Utah Redrock country of Canyonlands National Park
, Capitol Reef National Park
, and the Escalante River
wilderness.
Hyde contributed to nearly 80 books. In those following he was the primary illustrator:
Philip Hyde Inspiring a Generation of Wilderness Photographers http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/7611/C41/L41/
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
. He attended Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
' photography program at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art Institute, beginning with the Summer Session in 1946 and enrolling in the full-time professional photography training, the first of its kind, in the Fall of 1947, studying under photographers such as Edward Weston
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
, Minor White
Minor White
Minor Martin White was an American photographer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.White earned a degree in botany with a minor in English from the University of Minnesota in 1933. His first creative efforts were in poetry, as he took five years thereafter to complete a sequence of 100 sonnets while...
, Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer known for her photography of botanicals, nudes and industry.-Life and career:...
and Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
Hyde became a contributing photographer for the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
Annual in 1951. He photographed for This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic Rivers, a 1955 book edited by Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
highlighting a proposed dam on the Green River
Green River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
in Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is a National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah...
in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
and Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Hyde eventually became the primary conservation photographer for the Sierra Club. David Brower commissioned him to photograph for what came to be known as "battle books,"that helped the Sierra Club lead a coalition of environmental groups to establish or expand numerous national parks, wilderness areas and national seashores. This series of books the Sierra Club called The Exhibit Format Series. The most well-known photographers for the series were Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, Eliot Porter
Eliot Porter
Eliot Furness Porter was an American photographer best known for his color photographs of nature.-Early life:...
and Philip Hyde. The Exhibit Formata Series helped bring national attention to the Sierra Club and the cause of conservation and popularized the coffee table photography book paving the way for thousands of books of this type in the years since.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the US Bureau of Reclamation proposed two dams in the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
on either end of the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
. The Sierra Club published a book called Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon in 1964 in a successful campaign to turn public opinion against these dam projects that threatened the integrity of the wild river and its canyon. Hyde was the primary photographer. This book reshaped the image of the Grand Canyon for Americans and triggered an outpouring of support and letters from all over the world to prevent the flooding of the canyon. Hyde's photographs appeared in campaigns to create North Cascades National Park, Redwood National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, High Sierra wilderness, the Wind River Range, Canyonlands, islands off Puerto Rico, Big Sur, Kings Canyon, Sequioa National Park, Denali National Park, Tongass National Forest, the Navajo Tribal Parks, the Oregon Cascades, and many other national treasures.
Hyde said, "For every place there will always be people that want to exploit it, and there will always be people—hopefully—that want to save it and keep it as it is. Even with the risk of inviting the crowds into paradise, better to publish your photographs and rally the troops. What’s in the frame of the photograph matters artistically, to be sure, but what’s outside the frame can destroy it."
Hyde began making color photographs in 1948. In 1949, the California School of Fine Arts photography department supplemented its usual black and white training with a color photography class that Philip Hyde attended. The Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series began to introduce color photography to their books in 1962. In Wildness Is The Preservation of the World by Eliot Porter and Island In Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula were the first two nature photography books ever to contain color photographic reproductions. Philip Hyde's color photographs also appeared in Time and The River Flowing: Grand Canyon, Navajo Wildlands and other Sierra Club books before the 1970s. After spending time in the desert and discovering improvements in the dye transfer printing process, in the 1970s Hyde gradually transitioned completely away from black-and-white photography to focus solely on color. He is well-known for collaborating with author Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental...
on the desert classic, "Slickrock: The Canyon Country of Southeast Utah," (1971) yet another Sierra Club book published to highlight the threats to wilderness, in this case, the Utah Redrock country of Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park is a U.S. National Park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab and preserves a colorful landscape eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries. The park is divided into four districts:...
, Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park is a United States National Park, in south-central Utah. It is 100 miles long but fairly narrow. The park, established in 1971, preserves 378 mi² and is open all year, although May through September are the most popular months.Called "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s...
, and the Escalante River
Escalante River
right|Location of the Escalante River within UtahThe Escalante River is a tributary of the Colorado River. It is formed by the confluence of North and Birch Creeks near the town of Escalante in south-central Utah, and from there flows southeast for approximately before joining Lake Powell...
wilderness.
Publications
Hyde's last interview was featured in "Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography" by Stephen TrimbleHyde contributed to nearly 80 books. In those following he was the primary illustrator:
- 2009: The Ghosts of Glen Canyon: History Beneath Lake Powell by C. Gregory Crampton Foreword by Edward Abbey
- 1992: The Range of Light by Philip Hyde with Selections from John Muir - ISBN 0-87905-480-8
- 1991: Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature by Tom Turner; Sierra Club BooksSierra Club BooksSierra Club Books is the publishing division of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then Sierra Club President David Brower. Volumes intended for club members had been published prior to 1960. In addition, books under their name had been published before 1960, but done through already established...
- 1987, 1990: Drylands: The Deserts of North America text and photographs by Philip Hyde - ISBN 0-517-03289-9
- 1982: Images of the Southwest (Dye Transfer Color Portfolio)
- 1980: State Parks Of California: From 1864 to the Present by Joseph Engbeck
- 1979: Glen Canyon Portfolio - ISBN 0-87358-187-3
- 1979: Voices for the Earth by Harold Gilliam; Sierra Club Books
- 1976: A Trace of Desert Waters: The Great Basin Story by Samuel B. Houghton
- 1973: Mountain and Desert (Sierra Club Limited Edition Lithograph Portfolio)
- 1972: The Beautiful Southwest
- 1971, 1987: Slickrock: The Canyon Country of Southeast Utah by Edward Abbey and Philip Hyde; Sierra Club Books - ISBN 0-87156-051-8
- 1971: Alaska: The Great Land by Mike Miller and Peggy Wayburn; Sierra Club Books
- 1971: The Wilderness World of the Grand Canyon by Ann and Myron Sutton
- 1971: The Pursuit of Wilderness by Paul Brooks
- 1971: An Island Called California
- 1970: Glen Canyon Before Lake Powell
- 1969: The Grand Colorado: The Story of a River and Its Canyons Foreword by Wallace Stegner, by T. H. Watkins and others.
- 1968: South of Yosemite: Selected Writings of John Muir ed. by Frederic R. Gunsky
- 1967: Navajo Wildlands: As Long as the Rivers Shall Run by Stephen C. Jett, with selections from Willa Cather and others. Edited by Kenneth Brower with a foreword by David Brower. Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series.
- 1965: Not Man Apart: Photographs of the Big Sur Coast poetry by Robinson Jeffers; photographs by Philip Hyde, Wynn Bullock, Cedrick Wright, Edward Weston, Morley Baer, Ansel Adams, William Garnett, Eliot Porter, Cole Weston, Don Worth and others. Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series.
- 1965: National Parks of the West
- 1965: The Wild Cascades: Forgotten Parkland by Harvey Manning, photographs by Philip Hyde, Ansel Adams, Martin Litton, Bob and Ira Spring, David Simmons, John Warth and others. Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series.
- 1964: Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon by Francois Leydet, photographs by Philip Hyde, Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, Martin Litton, Clyde Childress, Richard Norgaard, P. T. Reilly, Joseph Wood Krutch, Katie Lee and others. Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series.
- 1964: Wildlands in our Civilization
- 1963: The Last Redwoods: Photographs and Story of a Vanishing Scenic Resource by Philip Hyde and François Leydet; Foreword by Stewart L. Udall. Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series.
- 1962, 2nd ed. 1973: Island In time: The Point Reyes Peninsula by Harold Gilliam. Sierra Club Books
- 1961: Wilderness: America’s Living Heritage
- 1960: A Climber’s Guide to Glacier National Park Sierra Club Books.
- 1955: This Is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic Rivers ed. by Wallace Stegner photographs by Philip Hyde, Martin Litton and others. Sierra Club BooksSierra Club BooksSierra Club Books is the publishing division of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then Sierra Club President David Brower. Volumes intended for club members had been published prior to 1960. In addition, books under their name had been published before 1960, but done through already established...
. - 1951: Sierra Club Annual Sierra Club Books.
Further reading
- Stephen Trimble (2006) Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography ISBN 0-87358-894-0
External links
- Philip Hyde Photography
- Sierra Club History - Philip Hyde
- Philip Hyde Photographs of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, 1955
- Philip Hyde Landscape Photography Blog by David Leland Hyde
- New York Times Obituary
- Los Angeles Times Article
- San Francisco Chronicle Tribute
Philip Hyde Inspiring a Generation of Wilderness Photographers http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/7611/C41/L41/