The Climbers

*Winner of the 2017 Banff Book Award for Mountaineering History and the 2017 Banff Book Award Grand Prize*

• Portraits that reveal the core of their remarkable subjects
• A visual history of special significance to climbers of all ages

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.
Jim Herrington began taking pictures as a teenager in his native North Carolina. Over the past forty years he has photographed scores of luminaries, including Benny Goodman, Willie Nelson, The Rolling Stones, Cormac McCarthy, Morgan Freeman, and Dolly Parton, as well as the iconic mountaineers found in The Climbers.

Jim's work has appeared on album covers, in international ad campaigns, and for magazines such as Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire and GQ. 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. He divides his time between New York City, Owens Valley, Calif., and Southern Europe. The Climbers is his first book. Learn more at www.jimherrington.com.
Jim Herrington's portraits are a gift to climbers, historians, artists, and others like me who are curious about people and the things they do....there is romanticism to this Golden Age that Herrington acknowledges in his preface, revels in even - he calls himself an 'unapologetic romantic'. It is this element that he goes on to capture beautifully in his photographs, 60-odd portraits all shot on black and white film, and all deeply moving. The subjects are past their prime, some are more wrinkled than others, but their contours tell stories of adventure, danger, mysticism, and daring (if not outright mania!).--Uttara Purandare "The Himalayan Journal "
This is a sumptuous coffee-table book, taking in the realms of mountaineering, photography, and fine art.--Andy Tickle "The Alpine Journal 2018 "
Nearly twenty years in the making, The Climbers, by photographer Jim Herrington, features stunning portraits of icons in mountaineering.--Mountain Life Annual
Herrington's resolute images ask for a long stare -- much like a mountain in the distance.--Elena Saavedra Buckley "High Country News "
Jim Herrington's wonderful new folio volume of portraits, titled simply The Climbers, aims at a loft[y] plateau. Herrington seeks to crystallize his own Golden Age...he tries not only to document the visages of his heroes in their older years, but also to plumb those faces for keys to the character beneath. It is as if Richard Avedon had photographed mountaineers rather than movie stars, minus the props and gimmicks.--David Roberts "Sierra magazine "