Born at Olympia, Washington, USA, in 1876, Byron Harmon was an enterprising young man, he opened up a portrait studio in Tacoma. Without enough money to buy film, he accepted his first client and proceeded to take her picture with an empty camera. Requesting a down payment, he used the money to buy film and then asked the lady back for retakes. Harmon soon realized, however, that there was little to hold his interest in portrait photography alone. Packing his studio into three valises, he set out to wrestle with the North American landscape, heading across the southern United States, up through New York, and back west across Canada.
En 1903, Harmon visitó una pequeña comunidad de las Rocosas canadienses llamada Banff. Allí se percató de que Banff estaba plagada de oportunidades para la fotografía, pero no habia un estudio. La visita fue corta, pero el lugar le dejó una impresión duradera y pronto regresó para ganarse la vida fotografiando las montañas. En 1906, abrió su propia tienda en Banff Avenue.
In 1903, Harmon visited a little community in the Canadian Rockies called Banff. Harmon found out that Banff was full of photographic opportunities, yet did not have a photographic studio. The visit was short but his impression of the place was a lasting one and he soon returned to make a living photographing mountains and, in 1906, he opened up shop on Banff Avenue.
Ese mismo año se formó el Club Alpino de Canadá y Harmon fue nombrado fotógrafo oficial del club. Harmon realizó con el Club Alpino de Canadá numerosas expediciones a las cumbres principales y a los glaciares de las Rocosas canadienses. Pronto fueron creciendo tanto su colección de fotografias como su prestigio. Harmon alcanzó el culmen de su carrera a principios de la década de 1920, cuando sus trabajos fueron ganando reconocimiento a nivel nacional e incluso internacional. Sus impresionantes fotos de las montañas occidentales de Canadá pronto se hicieron conocidas en todo el mundo.
The same year, the Alpine Club of Canada was formed and Harmon became the official club photographer. With the Alpine Club of Canada, Harmon made numerous expeditions to the major peaks and glaciers of the Canadian Rockies and his collection of pictures and his fame soon increased. Harmon reached the peak of his career in the early 1920’s, when his work gained national and even international recognition. His stunning photographs of western Canadian mountains became known throughout the world.
El viaje más importante de la carrera de Harmon, y también el más productivo fotográficamente, fue una marcha que hizo a través del glaciar Columbia junto al escritor Lewis Freeman en 1924. Lo que hizo que la expedición fuera tan impresionante no fue sólo el hecho de cruzar el glaciar, sino el que llevaran consigo un convoy de 15 caballos cargados con equipo fotográfico y cinematográfico. Al principio del viaje, en un momento en que el tiempo empeoró extremadamente, Harmon perdió “más suministros en dos días de los que la reciente expedición del Servicio Geológico estadounidense perdió en sus tres meses de viaje. Sin embargo, ni siquiera así sufrimos carencias serias, ni de alimentos ni de material fotográfico”.
The grandest and most photographically lucrative trip of Harmon’s career was a self-initiated trek across the Columbia Glacier with writer Lewis Freeman in 1924. What made the expedition so impressive was not only the crossing itself but the inclusion of a pack train of 15 horses loaded with photographic and motion picture equipment. In one instance of extremely bad weather near the beginning of the trip, Harmon lost “more supplies in two days than the recent US Geological Survey expedition lost in its three months’ voyage through the rapids of the Grand Canyon. Even at that, however, we were never seriously handicapped by a shortage either of food or of photographic supplies”.
Harmon passed away on July 10th, 1942, at the age of 66. He was a symbol of the end to an era of intensive mountain discovery that had taken place in the first half of the twentieth century. Harmon succeeded in giving the Canadian Rockies to the world and for that he will be remembered for years to come.
Fuentes:
http://www.harmonphotography.com/HP.asp?page=Home
http://www.whyte.org/