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Photographer captures 'The Wildest Rockies'

Brenda Ahearn | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 7 months AGO

<p>Kokanee Salmon.</p>

<p>The new book by local photographer Steven Gnam opens with a quote from C. M. Russell: "Guard, protect, and cherish your land, for there is no afterlife for a place that started out as Heaven."</p>

<p>Hiking in Glacier National Park.</p>

<p>"One of my favorite memories from this project the day I was climbing a mountain with my wife," said Gnam. "I walked over to the edge of a cliff and there was this sleeping bear 12 feet away. It looked up, checked us out, yawned like a dog, stretched out and went back to sleep. It was unreal."</p>

<p>A woman mountain climbing.</p>

<p>Steven Gnam en route for a week-long trip into the mountains to photograph wildlife and landscapes in midwinter.</p>

<p>Winter sunset.</p>

<p>A mountain lion hunting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.</p>

<p>A woman hikes over a glacier.</p>

<p>Harlequin ducks form the Crown of the Continent spend winters along the Pacific coast. During early spring they migrate back to streams throughout the Crown, where they nest on the ground or occasionally in tree cavities and on cliffsides.</p>

<p>Steven Gnam.</p>

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by Brenda Ahearn
| May 3, 2014 9:00 PM

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&lt;p&gt;The new book by local photographer Steven Gnam opens with a quote from C. M. Russell: &quot;Guard, protect, and cherish your land, for there is no afterlife for a place that started out as Heaven.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;

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&lt;p&gt;Hiking in Glacier National Park.&lt;/p&gt;

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&lt;p&gt;&quot;One of my favorite memories from this project the day I was climbing a mountain with my wife,&quot; said Gnam. &quot;I walked over to the edge of a cliff and there was this sleeping bear 12 feet away. It looked up, checked us out, yawned like a dog, stretched out and went back to sleep. It was unreal.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;

photo

&lt;p&gt;A woman mountain climbing.&lt;/p&gt;

photo

&lt;p&gt;Steven Gnam en route for a week-long trip into the mountains to photograph wildlife and landscapes in midwinter.&lt;/p&gt;

photo

&lt;p&gt;Winter sunset.&lt;/p&gt;

photo

&lt;p&gt;A mountain lion hunting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.&lt;/p&gt;

photo

&lt;p&gt;A woman hikes over a glacier.&lt;/p&gt;

photo

&lt;p&gt;Harlequin ducks form the Crown of the Continent spend winters along the Pacific coast. During early spring they migrate back to streams throughout the Crown, where they nest on the ground or occasionally in tree cavities and on cliffsides.&lt;/p&gt;

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&lt;p&gt;Steven Gnam.&lt;/p&gt;

The new book by local photographer Steven Gnam opens with a quote from C.M. Russell: “Guard, protect, and cherish your land, for there is no afterlife for a place that started out as Heaven.”

Gnam, a Whitefish native, has spent four years creating a collection of images. The result is his first book, “Crown of the Continent: the Wildest Rockies,” that will have a release party in Whitefish on May 9.

The nearly 200-page book features Gnam’s photography and essays from Douglas Chadwick, Michael Jamison, Dylan Boyle and Karsten Heuer.

“The Wildest Rockies” project began in 2010 when Gnam was clearing trails in the Mission Mountain Wilderness.

“I realized as I cut trees I was opening the areas up for people to come experience them,” Gnam said. “When I share my photography, I am doing a similar thing. I am opening up the wilderness, giving people access.”

Gnam has been taking photos since he was 10. He went to Flathead Valley Community College and then the University of Montana.

After college, he realized what it was that he wanted from life.

“What we have here is unique,” said Gnam. “It needs to be celebrated and it needs to be conserved because it won’t stay the way it is. I hear people make comments about how Montana today is the way Colorado was 20 years ago. In Montana we have a lot of intact wild places and wildlife, but they won’t remain unless we actively work to keep them.”

This conservation mentality has been the driving force behind Gnam’s work.

“If I am not emotionally moved, it is not going to be a good photograph,” Gnam said. “A lot of photographers are merely imitating. I am not trying to imitate, I am working to represent something that has moved me. If I see a scene that is overwhelmingly beautiful, there is a chance I will be able to capture and share that.”

Gnam continued:

“You have to be ready to be moved. You have to have your eyes open. You have to spend a week back in the backcountry or out in the Bob to accomplish that. This moves me. As a photographer I have learned how to translate that to film, but the heart of it is being moved by something beautiful.”

ARTICLES BY BRENDA AHEARN

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