Bradford Washburn, the Original Extreme Photographer, Dies at 96

Bradford Washburn, one of the great names in 20th century geography, photography, and mountaineering, died last Wednesday at age 96, according the New York Times.

Washburn, who for years served as director of the Museum of Science in Boston, will undoubtedly be best known for his contributions to cartography. Often working with the National Geographic Society, he used innovative approaches to measuring and mapping large-scale areas, such as the Grand Canyon and Mount McKinley (also known as Denali) in Alaska. ›But as far as I’m concerned his great contribution came in the form of photographs and adventure.

Back in 1983, American Photographer magazine published a groundbreaking feature about Washburn written by mountaineer/author David Roberts.  As Roberts pointed out, it was Washburn’s passion for photography that drove him to such extreme places as Mount McKinley. “By 1937, at the tender age of 27, Washburn was already the world’s leading Alaskan mountaineer, but also the world’s pioneer in oblique aerial photography of mountain landscapes,” wrote Roberts.

It was in 1936, in fact, that Washburn photographed Mount McKinley from the air for National Geographic. By today’s standards, that doesn’t sound like much of a feat. But as Roberts pointed out, at that time Mount McKinley, at 20,320 feet the highest peak in North America, was so remote that it could otherwise be approached only by pack train or dog sled. Simply to fly there and back was a dangerous idea, and to photograph it effectively from a plane was even trickier. His black-and-white photographs of the mountain, published in the book “Mount McKinley: The Conquest of Denali,” remain among the most stunning of their kind.

In many ways, Washburn was the original adventure photographer, as much an explorer as scientist or artist. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1910, he attended Harvard, studying geology and geography. But from early in life he was also a passionate mountaineer, climbing the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc by the age of 16.

Here is Roberts’s description of Washburn at work in 1933, when he set out to photography Alaska's Malaspina Glacier where it juts forth from the St. Elias range into the sea:

"To create the best vantage, Washburn took off the right-had door of a Lockheed Vega, removed the seat, and replaced it with a wooden crate. He padded the seat with spare clothing and put a four-inch-thick mat of sponge rubber under his feet to damp the vibrations from the plane. In this makeshift seat he faced not frontwards, but sideways, looking straight out the door. Lastly, he tied himself securely to the opposite bulkhead of the plane, giving himself enough slack so that he could lean well out of the opening. He held his 20-pound Fairchild F8 aerial camera in his lap."

Today we take for granted the privilege of seeing in great detail the remotest places on earth. We can do our own adventuring, if only on Google Maps. But it wasn’t always so.

—David Schonauer

Photo Copyright Hachette Filipacchi Media, U.S., Inc.

(click photo to enlarge)

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[Mesias Milla]

Mountaineering and Hiking in the Cordillera Blanca: climbing to Alpamayo, Huascaran, Quitaraju, Pisco, Chopicalqui, Ishinca, Tocllaraju, etc, etc.
Trekking to Santa Cruz, Cedros, Huayhuash, Quilcayhuanca, cojup, etc.
Trekking to the Inka trail trek to Machupicchu, Salkantay trek to Machupicchu, Choquequirao trek, tours to Ollantaytambo and Machupicchu.
Expedition in the jungle area; tambopata and Manu
Tours to the Nazca lines and ballestas Island in Paracas
Tours on the floating Islands in Titicaca Lake; Urus, Amantani, Taquile