Behind the Veil

About the Artist

Charlotte Gibb is an award-winning and renowned nature and landscape photographer based in Northern California.  She is known for her mastery of "Intimate Landscapes" — small scenes derived from a large landscape. 

The youngest of nine, she spent her early life playing and exploring the rural Northern California mountain area of her childhood home. Her father, an avid mountain climber and nature lover, made sure his kids shared his passion for the outdoors. After his death in a climbing accident, her mother continued to encourage an attachment to nature, ensuring that family vacations were spent outdoors camping, hiking, and exploring.

Charlotte earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She cut her teeth in the advertising business as an art director in the 1990s, then operated her own graphic design firm in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades. Throughout her long career as an artist, her photography was constantly infused in her design work. Her darkroom has since been replaced with digital darkroom tools, and her style has evolved from a somewhat journalistic approach, to one that pays tribute to the natural world.

Charlotte writes and publishes on the subject of photography and creativity, has been a keynote speaker and educator for several national photography events, served as a judge for international and local photography competitions, and exhibits her work throughout California.

She can usually be found tromping with her camera bag in the wilderness areas around the Sierra Nevada range and Yosemite National Park in her home state. 

Story Behind the Image

I often talk about the importance of returning to familiar subjects again and again to make landscape photos. It takes time to understand and decide how to express an idea photographically about a specific landscape. It’s not that I don’t enjoy new scenery and discovering new places — I do, and bring my camera along enthusiastically when I have those opportunities. I find it equally interesting to study the same subject in different light, conditions, and seasons. 

Impressionist painters were keenly aware that light had unique color qualities depending on the season, and they strove to emphasize accurate depiction of it. Claude Monet was particularly fascinated with painting the same subject repeatedly during different seasons and times of the day. His aim was not to portray a physical object, but to communicate the actual quality of the light. Photographically, this is my aim as well. 

This small grove of Cottonwood in Yosemite Valley has been the subject of several of my photographs. I remember some years ago when the trees were very young. They were much smaller then, surrounding the larger tree in the center. Now they are as tall as the middle tree. I visit this grove almost every time I am in the valley. I enjoy experimenting with new techniques and finding creative ways to photograph them differently.  I study how they’ve changed and responded to new conditions and then try to express their current character in a photograph. With every return visit, I gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for them. 

During this visit to the Cottonwood family, dense Winter fog moved through the grove, hiding it for some time in a thick veil. Every so often, a bit of a tree would peek through as the fog started to break up, only to disappear again. I waited for hours for the fog to reveal the grove. But I didn’t mind the wait. There was no place I’d rather be.

Ordering Information

Original photographs are hand made and not all sizes are kept in inventory. 

Special orders from the photographer may take up to 4 weeks for delivery.

Please contact us at info@anseladams.com if you have any questions about shipping and delivery.

Print Size Information

Prices subject to change as editions sells outs.