The rugged memory of the Pleistocene and the ancient courses of its glacial juggernauts are visible in the fall colored mountain valleys of Alaska where grizzly bears roam. The essence of all living things are extensions of their environments. In After the Ice Age - Grizzly Bear, Thomas D. Mangelsen was drawn to the soothing patina of a mountain valley in Alaska where the curve of a shadowy glacial moraine connected snowcapped mountains to the focal point of a lumbering bear, identifying the kinds of elements he seeks in a composition.

“Whenever I’ve gone to Alaska I’ve always come home with more inspiration filling the well from which I gather my vision as a nature photographer,” Mangelsen says. “Alaska is that constant living vision of primordial wildness, speaking to us as if freshly unveiled to our modern consciousness for the first time. For me, the only way to convey the emotion of this scene was through a panorama perspective, showing the grandeur of the Alaska Range, home of the grizzly.”