Paul Zizka’s The Canadian Rockies Rediscovered – Review by Ron Dart

There are “A”, “B” and “C” level novels that hold the reader for different reasons, but it is the classical “A” books we return to many times in our all too human journey. There can be no doubt that Paul Zizka’s compelling and creative photographs in The Canadian Rockies Rediscovered are in the highest reach of “A” level evocative photographs. The front cover of the book, ice climber ascending, soft purple northern lights backdrop, focused light on the climber a definite

promise and hint of visual beauties to come—such creatively distinct approaches to the Rockies summon forth, for those who have lingered long in such enticing grails of the soul, a longing to return to deeper places. 

All of the photographs, as the title of the book suggests, are from the Canadian Rockies but none to this point in Canadian photographic history has depicted and described the Rockies in such mesmerizing detail. Most of the photos come from the Banff environs, but Mount Assiniboine, Mount Robson, Yoho, Lake Louise, Jasper and Crowsnest Pass, White Goat Wilderness Area, Kananaskis Country and Kootenay National Park definitely and decidedly bring together a multiplicity of “under-documented” perspectives of the Canadian Rockies. The sheer creative breadth and depth of the photographs, all seasons and varied terrain covered, make for a must meditative sit and see, cover to cover slowly sat with on the visual journey. I have been fortunate, in my many trips to the Rockies, to visit the diverse and varied sites Paul so well illuminates but he has raised the bar to a much higher level for those longing to see much more that the Rockies has yet to offer (with some effort, of course).

The obvious creative photography that covers ice climbing, skating on lakes in the day and nighttime, peak ascents, appealing poses from attractive angles, self-portraits, models doing their posing deeds well, ice ax and ski descents, ski touring inside and outside glaciers—and night photos of the highest quality, headlamps making for many a surreal photo, some standard photographs, many a rare photograph of Banff, dramatic nature and multi coloured northern lights replete and ample in rare and not to be repeated photographs, star studded night skies, kayaks on lakes and much else living theatre in photographic motion. This is a book that anyone interested in a fuller and more nuanced approach to the Rockies beyond the trendy tourist photographs must have, each page a page turner to another eye keen surprise.

The Foreword by Dave Brosha to The Canadian Rockies Rediscovered is an insightful overview into Paul’s photographic journey and inspiration to others as is the must read Introduction by Paul Zizka, Paul’s artistic vision and changing approaches to photography articulated and

explained, thoughtfully and suggestively, in the Introduction. In the “What’s Changed: The Approach, Paul notes, “Perhaps the most significant shift in my photography since Summits & Starlight has been the addition of the human element in my images. I have been –and remain—fascinated by how much one can convey through the interplay of people and wilderness”. There can be no doubt that many of the finest photographs in this library of highest quality images bring together nature and the human journey in an exquisite and not to be forgotten manner.

Dave Brosha, I think, sums up much when he suggests, rightly so, that “Paul hasn’t just created a compelling collection of images from a place. He has—in my mind—set the creative standard for a body of work from the Canadian Rockies, and the influence of many of the images within this collection can’t be understated. Paul’s style is one of epic grandeur”. The combination of epic and grandeur is an apt and poignant way to sum up the rare and unique photographs in The Canadian Rockies Rediscovered—there can be not a shade of doubt that Paul has certainly rediscovered the Rockies in a way none have yet done and those who sit with this bounty of pure gold photography will necessarily so, see the Rockies again in a new way. But, to do so, they will need to make the trips and do the treks, in the daytime and night time, to places Paul has gone to see such sights. These photographs are very much icons pointing to what the Rockies offer to the curious and committed.       

I was fortunate in the early 1970s to spend time with the Mountain Sami in Northern Norway. Many were the nights spent under the aurora borealis, their dramatic shifts of colour from green to purple to soft red to mild blue, intense for a short season, seemingly disappearing, then returning again in all their show time season—and, of course, the star packed sky in the long winter nights made for a fine companion to the borealis, constellation of the night whispering an ancient tale.  Many are the photographs in The Canadian Rockies Rediscovered that linger with the lamps of the night and the drama of the aurora—again, as I began this short review, a definite “A” level book that needs to be inwardly digested and returned to, like epic literature, many, many times.

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Ron Dart