PORTRAIT OF THE STORM

There is anger in the storm. There is anger in the howling wind, and anger, too, in sonorous and sinister rolls of thunder as if some mad gods were kicking tin cans across the sky. The cruel lightning flashes are like strokes of great swords held by madder gods flailing each other to settle their lordly quarrels. Ever since the beginning of time man has been afraid of the storm. Our distant uncles and their kinfolks sat huddled and shivering in their caves when outside the elements were cutting capers and clawing at the earth. They attributed the storm to the fury of supernatural beings and shivered all the more. They deified the forces of sky and weather and today simpler peoples do the same thing, with the sun the beneficial god and inclement weather signs of disapprobation of lesser and more perverse gods holding court with the sun. We understand the storm now but we cannot control it, nor will we ever develop the knowledge and the tools to do so. We can spot the storm as it is being formed in some pressure area on the very fringes of the earth. We give it a name like "Mary" or "Alice", foretell its path, measure its strength and intensity and give it a good press with headlines like "Storm Warning," "Blizzard" and "Deep Snowdrifts." There is a snug contentment to be sitting by the fire while the storm howls by. but to the lonely of the earth without shelter, beaten and buffeted by the storm, loneliness becomes misery. We trace the storm as it passes through the land and we keep a sharp eye on it until its strength is spent or until it disappears again into the very fringes of the earth.

PHOTOGRAPHER R. F. MCGRAW has always been interested in storm studies. In his travels through the Southwest he has had opportunity to photograph storms in all moods at all seasons. The dramatic photographs presented herein, we feel, are not only achievements of a master photographer but those of a tireless traveler who has had the patience to wait around until Old Mother Nature attains her angriest, if not most beautiful, moods and who has had the poetic understanding to record them. The reproduction on the adjoining page entitled "SUMMER STORM" was made from a large Carbro print as were "THE GLORY ROAD," "STORM DRAMA," and the reproduction spread over the two center pages, "OCTOBER STORM." Mr. McGraw operates the McGraw Colorgraph Company of Burbank, California, a firm specializing in the production of Carbro prints. He has, therefore, not only skill with the camera but broad technical knowledge of color values and color printing. Here are his notes on some of the photographs reproduced in this issue: "OCTOBER STORM": (center panels) A cold and violently windy day on the northwest slopes of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff. Note that separate groups of aspen are seen in three different conditions of leafage: green, golden and barren. 5x7 one-shot camera, Eastman Super Panchro Press Type B film in DK-50. Nega tives masked and a Carbro print made. 1/5 sec. at f/16. 5:45 p.m. October 11.

"SUMMER STORM": (right) Taken in the extreme northwest corner of Arizona, a mile or two from where US 91 enters Utah, looking southeast. At the left is seen the canyon through which the Virgin River emerges from the Beaver Dam Mountains. Data: 5x7 view camera, 61½" lens, 12 sec. at f/29 on Anscocolor film. 6 p.m. Au gust 10. Carbro print made from the transparency for reproduction.

There is drama in the storm. Sky and earth meet and are one and the beholder, if he has a comfortable seat, is afforded divine entertainment. This is especially true in our western country where the sky is endless and the land stretches on and on. The faraway mountain ranges, seen as bright purple through the rarified atmosphere, turn darker as the clouds form over them and cloud shadows blot out the sun. The sky gets darker and darker as if the lights were being dimmed on the stage, there is lightning like probings of strong spotlights, thunder the sound of drums, and a curtain of rain, slanting with the wind, joining sky and earth so that you cannot tell where one begins and the other leaves off.

There is variety in the storm as the seasons vary. There is urgency to a storm in winter so big it covers all the earth. A winter storm is a serious business, cold and obdurate, an unwelcome visitor with an icy humor one is pleased to see move on. Summer storms are more local and always welcome because they settle the dust and allay the heat. They form quickly and as quickly depart. Spring showers are gay and gentle but maybe that is because we are in a gay and gentle mood when they come calling.

There is beauty in the storm. The great thunderheads of summer have a massiveness and a grandeur never found in other cloud formations. They form, they pour their moisture to the earth, and then they break up and scatter, becoming gay white spots in the blue sky. The sun paints rainbows against the storm curtain and the colors are dazzling and rich. The sun, too, setting behind a bank of storm clouds, turns the lacy edges of the clouds to silver, then gold, then wine red. There is beauty in the storm swirling over mountain peaks, and beauty in snow falling silently to earth. We cannot see the wind, but we can see the trees bend before it, we can hear the leaves talking to it, and we can see the tumbleweeds hurrying along to keep it company. There is beauty in that, too.... R.C.

"APRIL SHOWER": This handsome mountain west of Chino Valley (near Prescott) caused me to set up my camera several times in one morning. I kept trying again because each time the composition was too "busy" there were too many other elements that distracted attention from the mountain. Finally a happy combination of circumstances produced what I wanted a simple flowing arrangement of the component shapes and colors. 5x7 view camera, 12" lens, Ektachrome film, 1/10 sec. at f/25. 11:20 a.m. April 18. I frequently use the dividing back to make two long narrow horizontal panel shots on one 5x7 film. Landscapes often lend themselves admirably to this treatment, and when they do, the pictures have a feeling that is usually lost when the same scene is photographed in conventional proportions.

"WINTER SKY": In Peeples Valley, south of Prescott. 5x7 view camera, 81½" lens, Ektachrome film, 1/10 sec. at f/25. 3:33 p.m. February 1.

"THE GLORY ROAD": Near the Navajo Bridge on U.S. 89. 5x7 view camera, 61½" lens, Ektachrome film, 1/5 sec. at f/25, about 4:15 p.m. August 27. Carbro print made for reproduction.

"THE GOOD EARTH REFRESHED": (opposite page) In Chino Valley, the same morning as "APRIL SHOWER." 5x7 view camera, 18" lens, Ektachrome film, 1½ sec. at f/45. 10:30 a.m. April 18.

"STORM DRAMA": Looking eastward from the lookout point on the east side of the Kaibab Plateau. Vermilion Cliffs in shadow at left, Echo Cliffs in sunlight in distance. 5x7 one-shot camera, Eastman Super Panchro Press Type B film, 12" lens. 1 sec. at f/36. Late afternoon, October. Negatives developed in DK-50, then intensified and masked. About 312x5 used to make the carbro print.

"RAIN SQUALL, MONUMENT VALLEY"