RIP Bobby Model

September 19, 2009 3:39 PM

Bobby Model, brilliant adventure photographer, died Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at the age of 36. Here are some examples of his beautiful work.
posted by Matthias Rascher (18 comments total)

Wow, what an amazing talent. I always appreciate the photographers who do this kind of work because it is probably the only way my unadventurous, boring self will ever experience any of these thrills. Thoughts to his family and friends.

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posted by pearlybob at 3:48 PM on September 19

It's almost as if his eyes were the camera. I'm curious as to how he physically managed to take a lot of those.

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posted by gomichild at 3:51 PM on September 19

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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:05 PM on September 19

Sad story.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:07 PM on September 19 [2 favorites has favorites]

Recently, he wrote his friends:

OK, everybody you can stop crying for me now. Thanks, though.

Love, Bobby


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posted by Jikido at 4:11 PM on September 19

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posted by farishta at 4:19 PM on September 19

Amazing work.

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posted by jeoc at 4:25 PM on September 19

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posted by jquinby at 4:46 PM on September 19

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posted by readery at 5:52 PM on September 19

Damn. I spent a week climbing with Bobby and crashing at his folks ranch in '99 when he was still primarily a climbing photographer. During the week, Bobby was shooting a photo essay on Cody ice climbing for Rock and Ice. When the essay ran, it included photos of a rancher (and his dog) who worked in the South Fork valley where the climbing is located as well as the local one-room schoolhouse and some of the students. It's rare for climbing photographers, writers, and whatever to engage with the communities they climb in. It's a pretty urban sport that takes place in rural areas. So for these photos to run showed a talent and a grasp for humanity that's pretty rare in sports photography. That he later went on to focus on people and their lives instead of athletics came as no surprise to me.

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posted by stet at 6:05 PM on September 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

A successful career as an adventure photographer, only to get hit in the head with a chunk of concrete two years ago and survive (with brain injuries), and finally die due a brief illness.

More of his work: Climbing Mount Kenya (via), A Look Inside Modern Iran, Libya's Shifting Sands, he won the 2005 Banff Mountain Photography Competition for Best Photo - Mountain Culture, Gustave, the Killer Crocodile (1 pic, 16 short pages of text by Michael McRae), photos accompanying Gustave, and 9 more pages of search results at National Geographic.

One shot from a series on a new photographic exhibition at the Royal Geographic Society in London.

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posted by filthy light thief at 6:18 PM on September 19

On non-preview: from stet's mention, I searched RockAndIce.com and the only mentions of Bobby Model are two posts about his 2007 injury, and a note about how many comments one of the threads about him received (814 messages, vs “Mr. Obama and the Rev Jeramiah Wright Controversy” that got 346 posts, and the new record holder, “Doug Robinson, Sean Jones, rap bolt South face of Half Dome!” which had 1181 responses). Sad that they don't have his photos online, or at least not in a way that's easy to find.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:25 PM on September 19

this one hurts my heart.
posted by ms.jones at 6:52 PM on September 19

Those are some beautiful images.
posted by Lillitatiana at 7:26 PM on September 19

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Life isn't fair.
posted by DreamerFi at 10:50 PM on September 19

He has done some amazing work and it's tragic that he's no longer with us to give us more of it. I'm sorry he and his family have had to go through this. Would that there were no such things as random acts of violence.

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posted by ooga_booga at 12:07 AM on September 20

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posted by the cuban at 2:57 AM on September 20

It just isn't fair that anyone with vision like this isn't allowed to live to a ripe old age, with volumes of his images having graced the retinas of the world.

My condolences to his friends and family.
posted by dejah420 at 7:40 PM on September 20