58

Bradford Washburn

1910-2007

Self-portrait of the American explorer and mountaineer with his Fairchild serial K-6 camera. July 1938; printed 1947.

Silver print
Affixed to an archive file; with a copyrighted typed label and date from the National Geographic Society on verso.

The label reads as follows:
"With his Fairchild serial K-6 camera, Bradford Washburn has been able to study much about glacier structure, which is not evident to one standing on the surface of the glacier. As the climax of eight years of exploration, Washburn, in the summer of 1938, led the Harvard University - National Geographic Society Alaska Expedition into the largest unexplored region of Alaska's mountainous southeastern coast, where they reported the discovery of a mammoth glacier system 235 miles long, probably the largest outside the polar regions. Flying at altitudes of around 15,000 feet, Washburn needs a fur-lined suit and heavy overshoes even for summer exploration. The camera can take 110 pictures, 7 x 9 inches, with a single loading."
The image 8 1/4 x 5 5/8 in. (21 x 14.3 cm.)

  • Notes:
    Washburn was an American explorer, cartographer, and acclaimed photographer who is credited to recording the definitive geographical details of Everest and other mountains of Alaska.
    Washburn is considered one of the greatest mountaineers during the first half of the 20th century due to his fearless ascents to multiple untouched peaks in Alaska and the Yukon, often alongside his wife Barbara Teel Polk. Due to the perilous environments he worked in, Washburn was an expert in technical photography. His method involved using the Fairchild K-6 large format camera for oblique aerial images that would aid in his map-making. He was a trailblazer both literally and figuratively with his early implementation of aerial photography and his decisive fieldwork on Denali, Everest, McKinley, and the Grand Canyon. The thousands of photographs he produced on these expeditions are highly regarded and were featured in magazines such as Life and National Geographic. His works consist of breathtaking black and white scenes of sky and snow; peaks and valleys, taken from an impossible bird's-eye view.
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