Hermitary - Gallery - Photos

About the photographs on this page

These men of modern times (twentieth century through the present) represent distinctive biographies and interests but all are motivated less by philosophy or belief as simple attration by and desire to live in wilderness and nature. Gnädinger was an artist and sculptor working outdoors, while Barrientos and the Spanish pastoralist maintained animals. Other hermits are esapees of society: Nagasaki, Neale, Luca, Glasheen, Morandi, and others, though, ironically, most stayed in close touch with old acquaintances while living alone and remotely. The very effects of solitude intrigued Bob Kull, whose year-long experiment in solitude on a remote part of Chile consciously pursued solitude for its scientific study. To a degree, Neil Ansell also pursued his solitude consciously, an intentional experiment. The other men -- from Gromov's odd self-exile to the elected eremitism of the others in this gallery -- testify to the apparently abstract but powerful lure of wilderness. See also American hermits and Women hermits for more instances of wilderness motive.