Those 42 days produced about 500 rolls of film with 36 images per roll, from which only a few images have seen publication. In a video accompanying the Briscoe exhibition, Mangelsen describes his “very intensive editing process,” wherein thousands of shots finally result in “that one image that meets all the criteria for print.”
Now 70 years old, the Nebraska native bought his first Pentax 35 millimeter film camera at age 21 and has since photographed on all seven continents.
Visitors to the Briscoe might not catch a glimpse of the busy photographer, however. Mangelsen was unavailable for interviews because he is deep inside Yellowstone National Park tracking a long-term subject: