Fred and Joan Hanselmann

Both Joan and I have a great love for the mountains and rivers and deserts of the American west. I suppose this came from our childhoods. We both grew up in Wyoming and learned at an early age to love the wild places around us. Joan grew up camping and fishing and hiking with her family in the Wind River Mountains in the North-western part of the state.

I had similar experiences. When I was between ten and fourteen or so, my parents would often take my brother and I on a series of wonderful summer vacation trips to the great National Parks of the West. Since we lived in Wyoming, one of the places we often visited was Grand Teton National Park. I can still remember one magic morning when we got up very early to go on a hike. We were walking around Jenny Lake shortly after dawn. The lake was absolutely still and mirrored the majestic Cathedral Group of the Tetons. Mists swirled above the lake and in the high peaks. The air was filled with the scent of pine and clean mountain water. I was absolutely enthralled. I vowed to come back. And I have. I've been back to the Tetons every year of my life since, except for a couple of years that I spent in the army. The Tetons have become a central and enduring part of my life.

Another formative experience happened on one of our visits to the Grand Canyon. We were on the North Rim at the beautiful old lodge there. I remember we were on some sort of overlook near the lodge, right on the the rim of the canyon. Someone was playing classical music on an organ. How the organ got to the overlook, I'm not sure. I guess the lodge did things more grandly in those days. I remember standing at the iron railing, overlooking the Canyon, watching the sun set into purples and mauves and golds and reds and being completely swept away. My mother tells me that I couldn't be budged from the place until the sun had completely set and it was dark.

And then there were countless fishing and camping trips in Wyoming that filled my mind with happy memories. The smell of sage, the sound of running water, the sight of white cumulus clouds floating high over blue peaks had a large influence on my developing mind.

I'm sure that all of these experiences played a large part in my decision to become a landscape photographer. These images of the beauty of the natural world, seen at an early age, have remained with me all my life. Perhaps by being a landscape photographer, I'm trying, over and over, to recreate the perfection of these early images.

Fred Hanselmann

 

Joan photographing in the Tetons

 

Fred using a 4x5 camera near our old home in Howard, CO

 

For 15years we lived in the pine forest not far beyond this mountain meadow

 

The road to our old home in Howard, Colorado. For 15 years we lived in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains three miles up this road. The two prominent mountains are called the Twin Sisters.