Fletcher Manley

Few can claim to be Warren Miller’s right hand man–Fletcher Manley is one of them. As a principal cinematographer and photographer with Miller through the 70s and 80s, Manley was Miller’s go to guy when it came to traveling to far off and sometimes sketchy destinations–and he brought along a still camera to document it all.

One day a photograph of a couple of guys standing in front of a snow-covered, but well lived in tipi in Jackson Hole arrived on my office desk. One of them was Fletcher Manley holding a 16mm movie camera in his hand. I figured that anyone who could live in a tipi during a Wyoming winter and still sell his services as a movie cameraman had to be OK.

As it turned out, Fletcher was one of those rare photographers and cinematographers who knows exactly how he wants the scene to affect the audience. His eye for composition has been refined by years of working in photo labs—a task which strikes me the most boring work available to man or woman. But clearly, it was great training for Fletcher.

I can’t remember the first job I assigned to Fletcher, but it was during the early 70’s. My phone was ringing off the hook. The ski world was exploding and I needed all the help I could find to document it. Fletcher was soon traveling the world alongside Don Brolin and Brian Sisselman to gather footage for the voracious appetite of the worldwide ski community…

– Warren Miller

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