ENVIRONMENTAL EYE

Yosemite National Park

Photographs by RICHARD BLAIR from the 70’s onward

Read my essay about my long, wild affair with Yosemite.

Yosemite was my first love in California. I hiked and climbed there for the first time in 1967, when I spent the summer backpacking. With a tiny transistor radio, I heard Neil Armstrong talking from the moon, while its light bathed the wilderness landscape.

By 1971 I was the official park photographer, based in Yosemite Valley. My assignment was to stop rioting between the hippies and the rangers, through educational programs involving light shows and rock and roll. We were called the Yosemite Light Brigade, a bunch of talented rebels.

I was profoundly influenced by Ansel Adam, who casts a long shadow in Yosemite.

I am still visiting Yosemite, but generally avoiding the valley, as the crowds and cars have ruined the vibe. The rampant profiteering in the park is repellent. The park service can’t control it - blame the politicians getting contributions from park businesses. But going off trail in the higher elevations is still paradise. Yosemite Valley is still magic - try to visit off season, after a snow storm. That clears more than the air!

To acquire one of these prints, please call go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

Yosemite Photographs. By Richard Blair, former park photographer. Images of Yosemite Valley, the High Sierra, and hiking and climbing.

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Yosemite is a national park, but it has evolved to be a large urban space with all the problems that come with cities; crime, pollution, overcrowding traffic. This “city” is overlaid on one of the most beautiful valleys on earth, with rather mixed results - shown here.

Do what you can to restore the valley to a natural haven. People need to be gentle, peaceful and respectful of this landscape. I hope this long and varied collection of images helps you see the valley in its populated state. People have wants and needs - from food and shelter to recreation - that’s understandable - a tipping point is reached when the park is no longer the natural area visitors seek but it has become a tourist trap. The solution - remove the urban infrastructure.

How to do this? With a writing campaign, organizing, voting for change then ultimately with bulldozers. I know this seems impossibly hard, but what is the alternative. Giving up on the valley? Never.

I would love to turn you on to Point Reyes!

.I can print any of these images; their costs vary depending on the size that you want.

To acquire one of these images, please call go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print!

Signs are a form of folk art. I love that they are done by sign painters and amateurs, not professional graphic designers working with the latest digital tools. They reveal more than their advertising message.

To acquire one of these images, please go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

To acquire one of these images, please call go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

New York in the late sixties by Richard Blair

The 60s were a time of great change: baby boomers were coming into their own; independent from their parents. The Vietnam war was raging, hippies were getting very high, and gloomy talk in New York City was of bankruptcy. Richard Blair was roaming the streets taking dramatic photographs of the city.

To acquire one of these prints, please call the gallery at 415 663-1616 for price and size information.

I came out to San Francisco in 1967 and stayed in the Haight during the Summer of Love. It was great! There was free food, free apartments, clothes, concerts, everything was free and the people were so open, friendly, loving. We were mostly in our late teens or early twenties, we were looking good! We were really stoned too.

To acquire one of these images, please call go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

PLEASE FIND SOME TIME IN YOUR LIFE TO BE FREE AND HAVE FUN!

I would love to turn you on to Bali!

To acquire one of these images, please go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

Point Reyes photographs by Richard Blair. Most of these images were shot on film with a large format camera, which gives them extreme sharpness and smooth graduations of tone.

He was hired as park photographer for Yosemite Valley by the National Park Service. This led to an exposure to fine black and white techniques from masters of black and white printing, notably Ansel Adams. Blair is green-red color blind, which perhaps is an advantage for black and white imaging.

These photographs of Point Reyes and the northern California coast, are a homage to the tradition of conservation images. Carleton Watkins stunning albumen prints led to the creation of Yosemite National Park.

To acquire one of these images, please go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

All this work was recently scanned from a collection of slides going back to my first roll of color film. Now I do this with a highest resolution Canon camera, a 100mm close-up lens, a light table, a powerful studio flash, connected to my mac with a cable. Now I can get a great files to print - I am very proud of this setup.

Some of Blair’s most interesting images are of the sixties, an amazing era. He was part of the explosion of hippie culture; note how it contrasts with older (iconic) lifestyles brought forth from the fifties. Please view the New York 1969 photographs found on the website to contrast with these images. The east and west coast were so different - the cultural shift caused by the population explosion of baby boomers coming of age was felt more in California. The west is less entrenched, more adrift in the culture wars which determine how we live and think.

Please enjoy!

To acquire one of these images, please call go to Print Information for price and size information. Then use the Contact Page to message me and I’ll ship you a fine print.

Here is a pdf book of of my street photos you can download via this link.