Janine and I spent the winter of 2000 living in Moab, Utah. Our address was wherever we parked our van and we were free to roam and photograph anything and everything in the amazing Utah desert.
Just outside town and along the corridor of the Colorado River are the steep towers of Wall Street. There we met some Swedish base jumpers who invited us along to photograph them for a day. We hiked to the top of the wall, shot them prepping their gear, and then photographed the actual jump. Back then, before being inundated with YouTube videos of all things extreme, seeing someone jump off a cliff was not at all normal, in fact it still isn’t – when seen in person.
After they jumped we had still to walk down. While doing so we passed, and said hello, to two other base jumpers headed up. Then we realized that if we hurried down, we might catch them as they jump. Our arrival back to the bottom was perfectly timed with Jimmy Pouchert’s exit. I remember having seconds to get the camera out and an image framed before he jumped. Later, when we first saw the photo on the lightbox, we new we had something special. Thanks to its simplicity, it reveals what it means to base jump.
2 Comments
Amazing!! One of those things on the life ‘to do list’ for sure!!
It’s a rainy and windy day in Moab today. Nice Shot !