PLEASE NOTE: Due to inclement weather on the East Coast, Herrington’s flight has been delayed. His lecture is rescheduled to Friday, January 19, at 12:15 p.m. The event will be streamed and recorded on the S.J. Quinney College of Law YouTube channel, though due to copyright infringement no pictures from his book will be shown on the recording.

The Climbers

12:15-1:15 p.m., S.J. Quinney College of Law Moot Courtroom (Level 6)
For nearly 2 decades, professional photographer Jim Herrington has been working on a portrait series of influential rock and mountain climbers. The Climbers documents these rugged individualists who, from roughly the 1930s to 1970s, used primitive gear along with their considerable wits, talent, and fortitude to tackle unscaled peaks around the world. Today, these men and women are renowned for their past accomplishments and, in many cases, are the last of the remaining practitioners from the so-called “Golden Age” of 20th century climbing.

Herrington’s images—the result of his own passion for climbing—allow us to study the faces of climbers who were driven to do the impossible for no other reason than the challenge. In these portraits we find people who ascended bold, visionary lines, often in remote regions, away from the media spotlight and without any hope for reward. Yet in many ways the severe routes these men and women established outshine today’s ascents due, in part, to the fact that rope and other gear were so strikingly inferior to today. And often our pioneering predecessors were climbing into a malevolent unknown—if compromised or injured, the only people in the world likely capable of initiating their rescue were the climbers themselves. Innovation emerged frequently and in unlikely ways. In these images, Herrington has captured the utter humanity of obsession, determination, intellect, and frailty.

This event will be streamed and recorded on the S.J. Quinney College of Law YouTube Channel »
1 hour of CLE (pending). Lunch provided.
No registration required. Free and open to the public.

Jim Herrington is a noted international photographer whose photos of celebrities including Benny Goodman, Willie Nelson, The Rolling Stones, Cormac McCarthy, Morgan Freeman and Dolly Parton have appeared on the pages of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and GQ, as well as on scores of album covers. Herrington’s photography has been exhibited in solo and group gallery shows in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Nashville, Milwaukee and Charlotte, and is in numerous private collections.

For nearly two decades, he has been also been working on a portrait series of early-to-mid 20th Century climbing legends. The result is ‘The Climbers’, a collection of sixty black-and-white photographs that document these rugged individualists, including the likes of Royal Robbins, Reinhold Messner, and Yvon Chouinard. Between the 1920s and 1970s, these determined men and women used primitive gear along with their considerable wits, talent, and fortitude to tackle unscaled peaks around the world. In these images, Herrington has captured their humanity, obsession, intellect, and frailty.

The book was awarded the Mountaineering History prize at the Banff Film & Book Festival, 2017.

Published by Mountaineers Books.

The King’s English Bookshop will be onsite selling this book.

Co-sponsored by the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program.
Funding provided by the Cultural Vision Fund.

For questions about this event contact Kris (801) 585-3440.

Paid parking is available at the Rice-Eccles Stadium using the pay-by-phone app. We encourage you to use public transportation to our events. Take TRAX University line to the Stadium stop and walk a half block north. For other public transit options use UTA’s Trip Planner. The law school is on the Red Route for the University’s free campus shuttles (College of Law stop).