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The FOGHORN
ROTARY CLUB OF HALF MOON BAY
September 2, 2021
Gordon Wiltsie
Award-Winning Photographer
To the Ends of the Earth – The Adventures of an Expedition Photographer
Article by Stacy Trevenon
Photos by Dianne Bobko
President Joe introduced the day’s speaker, award-winning photographer Gordon Wiltsie, a resident of Montara with his wife Meredith and two sons. He and Joe met in Bishop, Calif. By way of a biography, Joe had included in his email that in addition to being an award-winning photographer, Wiltsie is a “writer and explorer who has led and documented extreme mountaineering, dogsledding, skiing, and other expeditions to some of the world’s remotest mountain and polar regions. He is also noted for his photography of vanishing cultures and his images have appeared in scores of magazines, including National Geographic. He is the author (of) To the Ends of the Earth – The Adventures of an Expedition Photographer and has done photography work for several other books.
Gordon started his presentation with thanks for the invitation, and noted that it was a pleasure to him to come to this community. He said he felt blessed to be born at a time when there are still places that have not been visited by humans, when there are still people who follow ancient ways and still get around by riding horses, and that he feels blessed to live where there is still open land. In the course of publishing his photographic work, he said, he has been known to publishers to go for the tough assignments. “If it’s cold, miserable and dangerous, it goes to Gordon,” has been said of him by publishers, he said with pride. He noted that he has felt fortunate to have witnessed and photographed some things, sometimes extreme subjects, that he has. “Participatory journalism,” he called it, borrowing a phrase from famed outdoor adventure photojournalist and mountaineer Galen Rowell, and to illustrate his point, he presented a photo taken at the Arctic Ocean and a sled which had broken through the ice. Where others might get scared, he said, he has to do it.
He himself was born in Bishop, Calif., first picked up a camera at age 8, grew up with National Geographics and had experienced canoeing deep in Canada by eighth grade. He had wanted to be a fighter pilot but having failed a colorblindness test in high school he turned to photography and joined his high school yearbook staff. “I was the nerdiest kid,” he said, “but photography transformed me.”
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
United States of America