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Matinee: 'The Art of Climbing Photography With Simon Carter'
17 July 2021
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 405th in our series of Saturday matinees today: The Art of Climbing Photography With Simon Carter.
This 4:04 clip by Dave Fanner for the Guardian is part of a series of profiles focusing on different genres of photography. This particular profile captures Simon Carter hanging off a cliff to get some rock climbing images.
We have watched every one of the 404 previous videos we're presented in this series of Saturday Matinees. And we end up watching them several times to write our short introductions to them.
But this one we watched with our eyes closed.
There is something about the angle, high above any safe place to stumble into a sitting position, that terrifies us.
We tried to watch with just one eye shut at a time, but we had to sit on the floor.
Carter, fortunately, doesn't have our problem.
An Aussie, he was born in Canberra and has made a name for himself in rock climbing photography after getting the camera bug as a teen and building a darkroom when he was 15. Rock climbing didn't win him over until he was 17.
He studied photography in high school and produced scientific images at the Australian Nation University before getting his BA in outdoor education at La Trobe University. He spent eight months as a full-time climber and started photographing his fellow climbers.
In 1994 he established Onsight Photography, building up a body of work featuring many of world's best climbing destinations from Tsaranoro in Madagascar and Teplicke in the Czech Republic to Mount Huashan in China, as well as every major cliff in Australia.
In the video, Carter talks about how he approaches climbing photography. It can be difficult to get into position, he points out. Then he shows us his rigging of three ropes strategically arranged so he can navigate to a good shooting location on the sheer cliff.
We see a number of his images along the way and they are stunning. Even with one eye shut.
Cleaning up the images is a challenge, he says, talking about composition. He shoots in continuous mode (motor drive, he calls it) after getting everything else set up in his favor.
You don't want to miss the moment when you're hanging by a thread.