The Journey

Living in and next to Yosemite over four decades

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By William Neill | December 4, 2023

William Neill

William Neill, a resident of the Yosemite National Park area since 1977, is a landscape photographer concerned with conveying the deep, spiritual beauty he sees and feels in Nature. Neill's award-winning photography has been widely published in books, magazines, calendars, posters, and his limited-edition prints have been collected and exhibited in museums and galleries nationally, including the Museum of Fine Art Boston, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The Vernon Collection, and The Polaroid Collection. Neill received a BA degree in Environmental Conservation at the University of Colorado. In 1995, Neill received the Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for conservation photography.

portfolios.williamneill.com

Black oak branches in winter, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 1994

The majority of photographs are representations of the external events in the world about us; what emotional response is evoked arises from the subject itself. But art, I believe, is most concerned with the internal event; the incredible spiritual and emotional insight and enlightenment generated within us, the deeper penetration of meaning and the ability to communicate to others what we experience and what we create… it begins with some external event. What we do with the external events, through this distillation of the internal event mechanisms, comprises what we, as photographers, present to the world as art.~Ansel Adams

My long journey, living in and next to Yosemite over four decades, has been a joyous one. Reading Ansel's words quoted above helped me reflect on my outward journey in this Sierra landscape that launched my photographic life, a life that gave me an expressive outlet for my internal emotions.

I came here as a young man "to climb these mountains and get their good tidings," as John Muir famously wrote. I spent most of my free time in the high country, away from the crowds. I surveyed topographic maps to find unique perspectives, mostly away from well-traveled trails. Working for the National Park Service, I had one night to backpack in and back out the next day, so these were hardly the epic treks into the wilderness of any legendary status. However, with each exploration out there, I came back with a deeper affinity for the landscape.

Cottonwood Bark, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California 1986

The sum of those early wilderness experiences led me to learn where I needed to be and where I was happiest. I had found Home. My photography developed out of those adventures in three national parks, first for two summers in Glacier National and in North Cascades National Park, and then in early Yosemite years. In Yosemite, I delivered my rolls of film to The Ansel Adams Gallery, where my film was sent off for development. And then, a week or so later, I'd return to pick up the developed slides and drop off more film. The anticipation to see if I had made images that reflected my experience was an exquisite combination of part thrill and part dread.

My visits to The Ansel Adams Gallery were educational and inspirational. I knew very little about Ansel Adams back then, except that my college Photo 101 prof didn't like his work. He didn't like colour photography much, either. But on those gallery walls, Ansel's prints glowed, revealing the magic of this landscape, and showed me the potential Yosemite offered me. A few years later, I joined the gallery as the resident photographer.

I learned many technical aspects of making photographs. More significantly, I learned to translate my emotional connections to my subjects through the craft I was learning, discovering "the deeper penetration of meaning and the ability to communicate to others what we experience and what we create," as Ansel put it.

Cottonwood Leaves And Cloud Reflections, Merced River 2013

Cottonwood leaves and cloud reflections, Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California 2013

On the day I started work in May 1980, I was transformed from an NPS labourer into a professional photographer. While working at the gallery, I began teaching photography and also served as exhibit curator. I learned many technical aspects of making photographs. More significantly, I learned to translate my emotional connections to my subjects through the craft I was learning, discovering "the deeper penetration of meaning and the ability to communicate to others what we experience and what we create," as Ansel put it.

I had the opportunity to listen to many world-renowned photographers talk about their images during the Ansel Adams workshops: Jerry Uelsmann, Ernst Hass, Joel Meyerowitz, Ruth Bernhardt, Paul Caponigro, Richard Misrach, Robert Glenn Ketchum, John Sexton, and Alan Ross, to mention a few. A recurring theme, encouraged by the instructors, was to push past ordinary ways to make images, to blaze one's own path, and to do so with the highest possible quality. Every one of those photographers had their own approach to supporting themselves as artists, using their business approaches to allow themselves to survive as artists and flourish creatively.

Reflections at Young Lakes, Yosemite National Park, California 1977

On one of my first hikes in Yosemite's backcountry in 1977, I visited a wonderous string of lakes near the Sierra Crest. Rising at dawn, I circled the shoreline in search of compositions. Once the sun broke over the high ridgeline above, I was enchanted by the nearly perfect reflections and light skimming across the talus and cliffs across the lake. Even so early in my creative development, I sought out detailed or abstract landscapes like this alpine lake reflection. I didn't have the words or understanding of why, but my instincts were in the right place, avoiding the greater context, the postcard view.

Even so early in my creative development, I sought out detailed or abstract landscapes like this alpine lake reflection. I didn't have the words or understanding of why, but my instincts were in the right place, avoiding the greater context, the postcard view.

Corn Lilies, Crane Flat Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California 1986

Horsetail Fall 2023

My book includes 23 Black and White photographs. Although I can't resist making dramatic "Anselesque" images when Yosemite presents the opportunity, I lean towards these quieter moments composed on a smaller scale.

My book includes 23 Black and White photographs. Although I can't resist making dramatic "Anselesque" images when Yosemite presents the opportunity, I lean towards these quieter moments composed on a smaller scale. As an example of a subtler image, I’m sharing a high-key rendition of corn lily leaves that reveal a wonderful graphical grace and a glowing sense of light

As an example of a subtler image, I’m sharing a high-key rendition of corn lily leaves that reveal a wonderful graphical grace and a glowing sense of light. But in a nod to Ansel and his influences on me, my waterfall photograph conveys the magic and drama one can often find in Yosemite Valley.

The thrill of such moments hasn't diminished for me. Whether seeing this misty meadow, the lacey texture of waterfall spray, the glint of Sierra sunlight on granite, or the tapestries of an evening forest, Yosemite has delivered a transcendent experience to me.

My journey out into nature so long ago, finding Home in Yosemite, nurtured in sanctuary, helped me look within and be confident that my vision was worthy and worth sharing.

There and back again.

William Neill

I was suddenly arrested in the long crunching path up the ridge by an exceedingly pointed awareness of the light. The moment I paused, the full impact of the mood was upon me; I saw more clearly than I have ever seen before or since the minute detail of the grasses ...the small flotsam of the forest, the motion of the high clouds streaming above the peaks... I dreamed that for a moment time stood quietly, and the vision became but the shadow of an infinitely greater world -- and I had within the grasp of consciousness a transcendental experience.~Ansel Adams