58 Years In The Wilderness-Signature Color Prints
Spanish Creek, Fall, Northern Sierra Nevada, California
Spanish Creek, Indian Rhubarb, Driftwood, Reflections, Fall, Northern Sierra Nevada, California, 1977. Published in Sierra Club Calendars. Original fine art prints in several permanent collections. Seeking a simple life close to nature, Ardis and Philip Hyde moved to the wilderness of the Northern Sierra, near the location of this photograph, leaving behind San Francisco and photographers such as Group f.64 founders Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, under whom Philip Hyde formally trained. The members of Group f.64 led the West Coast in Straight Photography, characterized by clean, strong lines and compositions, sharp focus throughout images and the discarding of pictorialist special effects that altered photographs to resemble paintings. Today digitizing Philip Hyde's photography continues in the tradition of Straight Photography, even though many painterly techniques have returned to some landscape photography including the oversaturation of colors, printing on canvas and other art papers, use of special effects in Photoshop and alteration and removal of objects in the frame. Philip Hyde usually chose subtle subject matter, avoiding sunsets that he considered cliché, and passing up what he called “roadside landmark photography.” He joked that some landscape photographers enhanced their images by "just adding red."
