BOERMANS, Menno - Vertical Vision

"Even though one regards himself as a photographer who mountaineers while the other sees himself as a mountaineer who takes photographs, the photography of Melvin REDEKER and Menno BOERMANS is a stunning testimony to the fact that they are masters of both disciplines.

Taking photographs while climbing is an alpine sport in its own right. It takes dogged determination to choose to raise a camera to your eye and take a shot when you barely have the strength to set one foot in front of the other. Because at altitude one always climbs in close partnership with others, the whole team must make sacrifices to allow the photographer to do his work.

Some mountaineers climb in order to boost their egos and will pay a fortune in order to reach the highest summits on earth; they sometimes even pay with their lives. The competitive spirit is not a mainspring for Menno and Melvin, and reaching the summit is not the key objective.

The most important thing for them is the journey and the way mountaineering confronts body and soul with the highest of pinnacles and the deepest of dips. Danger is the climber"s constant companion, but managing risk and enduring hardships mean that a mountaineer also experiences an intense sense of vitality.

In their photography, Menno and Melvin want to convey the experience of mountaineering, from training at ground level to conquering the summit. They capture climbing"s broad spectrum of experiences, making the road that is travelled, which is as important as reaching the summit, into the main subject.

For them the reflections in a mountain lake and the friendly face of a Buddhist monk are as telling as a push for the peak or persevering in a storm at an altitude of 6,000 metres. Their photos capture the unforgettable moments, the awe-inspiring nature, the confrontation with one"s own insignificance, the struggle between mountaineer and mountain, the triumph over natural and physical barriers, the friendship with climbers on whose welfare your life may depend, and the interaction with the people encountered en route.

For Menno and Melvin the guiding principle is to capture mountaineering up close. They often shoot photographs with wide-angle lenses and "off the cuff", using a hand they have freed up with considerable effort. This is how they capture the action from such close proximity, allowing the public to look over their shoulders at their eye level. They allow us to enjoy unique scenes and awesome horizons from places we would not dare to venture even if we were able.
In mountaineering there is a monumental equilibrium between privation and reward, with Menno and Melvin often tipping the balance in favour of the latter by taking wonderful photos. Capturing striking images therefore ranks among the ecstatic experiences that includes setting foot on virgin summits, climbing challenging chimneys elegantly or opening up a new route. Photography is both a justification and a pretext for Menno"s and Melvin"s mountaineering pursuits, and for them an expedition is only a complete success if the photographs are breathtakingly magnificent as well.

The photographs span a vertical escalade from -5 to +8000 metres, and the chapters are divided into four altitude ranges, from below sea level to the loftiest of peaks. In the captions, the figure in brackets indicates the altitude at which the photo was taken. Each altitude range makes specific demands on the climber and yields distinctive images." (publisher's note, © Focus, 2007)