"I think landscape photography in general is somewhat undervalued"
About this Quote
“I think landscape photography in general is somewhat undervalued” lands like an understatement from someone who spent his life proving the opposite. Rowell isn’t begging for compliments; he’s diagnosing a cultural blind spot. Landscape images are everywhere - calendars, screen savers, tourism posters - and that ubiquity quietly trains viewers to treat them as decorative background rather than authored work. When a genre becomes visual wallpaper, its difficulty becomes invisible.
Rowell’s “somewhat” is doing tactical work. It softens the complaint, but it also hints at frustration: the craft is misread as passive, as if the photographer simply showed up to a beautiful place and pressed a button. In Rowell’s world, landscape is athletic, logistical, and ethical. It’s predawn hikes, weather gambles, altitude, and a mind tuned to fleeting light. It’s also restraint: framing nature without turning it into conquest, spectacle, or real estate.
The context matters. Rowell’s career peaked as color photography fought for legitimacy in galleries and as “fine art” gatekeepers often prized portraiture or street work for its obvious human drama. Landscapes were dismissed as pretty, not profound - even though they can be political in their own quiet way, shaping how we imagine wilderness, national identity, and what’s worth protecting.
His line is a small act of advocacy for a form that’s been popular but not always respected. The subtext: you don’t have to photograph suffering to make serious art; sometimes the radical move is to insist that attention itself - sustained, disciplined attention to the world - has value.
Rowell’s “somewhat” is doing tactical work. It softens the complaint, but it also hints at frustration: the craft is misread as passive, as if the photographer simply showed up to a beautiful place and pressed a button. In Rowell’s world, landscape is athletic, logistical, and ethical. It’s predawn hikes, weather gambles, altitude, and a mind tuned to fleeting light. It’s also restraint: framing nature without turning it into conquest, spectacle, or real estate.
The context matters. Rowell’s career peaked as color photography fought for legitimacy in galleries and as “fine art” gatekeepers often prized portraiture or street work for its obvious human drama. Landscapes were dismissed as pretty, not profound - even though they can be political in their own quiet way, shaping how we imagine wilderness, national identity, and what’s worth protecting.
His line is a small act of advocacy for a form that’s been popular but not always respected. The subtext: you don’t have to photograph suffering to make serious art; sometimes the radical move is to insist that attention itself - sustained, disciplined attention to the world - has value.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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