Just before the Christmas break I spent a lot of time working with this image of backcountry hikers having received a commission to produce it into a large format, aluminium mounted print. A whole day was spent fretting about the quality of the shot, with any Photoshop imperfections ready to jump out and ruin the effect. The photo features in an experimental series that i hadn’t envisioned printing when i originally constructed them. Having carefully worked my way inch by inch across the image, I then paired myself with a very talented Geneva based printer who brought this abstract piece to life.
And now onto behind the shot:
One of the great things about working as a photographer on the Freeride World Tour is having the ability to witness the unique changes in the surrounding landscape as the tour comes through a resort. When watching the live stream of the event, or admiring a great action image it’s easy to assume that these skiers and snowboarders are simply dropped off by helicopter before getting ready to start their run. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Of course, some events are exceptions that feature helicopters taxiing the athletes, but hiking is the expected norm. It’s worth considering that for a second: these athletes have to hike with all of their gear across some precarious looking terrain for up to 2 hours before starting their event. There’s not many sports where this would ever happen, although it’s fun to imagine professional footballers walking 10km to the stadium already in their boots ready for the game.
I’ve always wanted to work on an image where the action is removed from its context, although a ski related image can prove to be a risky move. The ski industry has a steadfast belief that context is king. In most ski images the surrounding landscape is what gives the viewer the perception of a scene. For example, if a skier hits a jump then its common practice to include both the takeoff and the landing in the image, allowing us to get a sense of size. This is why i love removing these hikers from their context. Even though the landscape has been peeled back, the viewer can still paint a picture of what it’s like around them. There’s a sense of uniformity amongst the hikers as they all follow a boot pack towards the summit, creating a pattern that worked its way across my viewfinder. On this particular day the athletes were hiking up the infamous face of the Bec des Rosses, but removing them from context places them wherever the viewer wants them to be.
Capturing the image was only one part of the finished article. A large amount of time was also spent removing the background whilst trying to remain faithful to the original photograph including trying to keep the finer details such as ski poles. Album after album filtered through my iTunes library whilst i refined the work until it was ready to be sent to the printers. I breathed a huge sense of relief upon seeing the finished print happy in the fact that while context may still be king, this looks pretty damn cool too.
You can view more of my ‘behind the shot’ series [lobo_button url=”http://spine-chilling-clown.flywheelsites.com/category/behind-the-shot/” bgcolor=”#fff85f” color=”#000000″ target=”_self” label=”here”].
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