Inspiration from friendship and the valley have come together in the re-release of the 1975 novel called Badlands, by renown Canadian author Robert Kroetsch and photographer George Webber.
Webber is originally from the valley and has carved out a long career as a professional photographer. Some of his most prized works are of the Badlands of Alberta.
“I grew up with the knowledge that I was living in a magical place, the Alberta Badlands, in the little coal mining town of Drumheller,” he says in a passage introducing his photos in the new publication.
A few years into his career, he came out to valley and began shooting. Today, he continues to explore and shoot the Badlands.
“I love it to bits and the photography is great as well,” he said.
He was familiar with Kroetsch and as a university student, he read Badlands. A few years ago, he came to know the Governor General Award winning author when he was commissioned to do a shoot of the author for Alberta Views magazine.
“We really clicked, we were both from small town Alberta,” said Webber. “I loved the guy, he was so incredible and articulate.”
A couple years later, Kroetsch was killed in a car crash near Leduc. He was 83 years old.
“I was shocked at how upset I was because I had only known him for a short time, but he had a huge impact on me,” said Webber.
Not long after that, he was in conversation with Don Gorman, publisher at Rocky Mountain Books and mentioned that he has a collection of photos from the Badlands he took as a young photographer. These were originally exhibited in 1990 at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
The publisher was aware of Kroetsch’s work Badlands and the idea of a hard cover luxurious version of the novel, featuring some of these photos was born. The publisher secured the rights.
While some of the photos used in the book are from existing collections, there are some new photos. These new images share the same lineage as the original photos.
As a young photographer, he experimented with Kodak infrared film in his landscape images. He was happy with the results and today these photos are in galleries and museums all over the world.
The infrared film used in his original photos had been discontinued in 2007, but by an incredible stoke of luck, he was able to secure more than he could imagine.
Webber is an instructor at SAIT. One day, he received a call from the school and his colleague told him they were clearing out a storeroom of old photography equipment, and if he was interested to come and take a look at what was there, before it ended up in dumpster.
In the back of the room, they discovered a refrigerator humming away.
“I open this thing and the whole top freezer part was stuffed with this infrared film,” Webber said.
He made good use of it.
“The cover photography and maybe 20 per cent of the other photographs were taken in 2011 and 2012. It was a miracle catch. That film should have been in the dumpster.”
He printed the images for the book in his own darkroom.
While he read the book as a student, when he went to shoot the images, he shied away from it.
“I thought, Robert Kroestch wrote a novel and I am trying make a series of photographs. I didn’t want the photographs to serve the book… creative work is such a fragile thing and to trust in your own instincts is the best way to do it.”
“They are two very different bodies of work, but they make a wonderful marriage.”
The new edition of Badlands is available at rmbooks.com and other trusted online retailers, as well as local bookstores throughout the province.
