2006 Banff Mountain Photography Competition
Best Photo — Mountain Adventure
Bobby Model: Wyoming Jump
“Last summer, long-time friend Daniel Miller and I were cruising single track south of my hometown of Cody, Wyoming, when we came upon an edge we thought would make an excellent jump. The next evening, we came back to make some photographs. I was about to embark on a photo project with a Holga (an all-plastic camera with one exposure setting, costing about $20), so I wanted to practice capturing action with a strobe. When the contact sheets came back I was pleasantly surprised. Currently, I’m using a similar system to create a portfolio of images about daily life in Kenya.”
Bobby Model grew up on a ranch near Cody, Wyoming. His childhood experiences in the Absaroka high country instilled an early appreciation for remote places. In college he began to develop his visual sense with adventure photography. After earning a degree in environmental economics, he worked in a publishing firm in Colorado. Model then covered mountaineering expeditions on five continents for outdoor-industry clients. His interests have evolved to include photographic reportage that addresses news as well as geopolitical and social issues. He is a contributing photographer at National Geographic Adventure and is based in Nairobi, Kenya.