UCSB Arts & Lectures presents filmmaker/photographer Peter McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko delivering their National Geographic Live! illustrated presentation, Between River and Rim: Hiking the Grand Canyon, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, at UCSB Campbell Hall.
In an effort to share the Grand Canyon’s uncharted glory and shed light on the threats it faces, McBride and Fedarko set off on an adventure: to transect the length of the canyon on foot, an endeavor only about 24 people had accomplished before them.
It took them 13 months, logging nearly 800 miles and costing seven pairs of shoes, in temperatures ranging from minus-5 to 111 degrees.
McBride is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker whose images, whether they involve 20,000 foot vantages or swimming below icebergs, have earned him a spot on American Photo Magazine’s list of the top five water photographers in the nation.
Fedarko has written for National Geographic Adventure, Esquire and Time, and his work has twice been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing.
When they began their journey, McBride and Fedarko were challenging themselves, but more importantly, they were challenging others to recognize how fragile this ecosystem is and how the future of the crown jewel of America’s national parks system hangs in the balance.
The canyon changed them, and they hope their work will change the minds of others.
A native Coloradan McBride has spent almost two decades studying the world with his camera. A self-taught photographer, filmmaker and writer, he has traveled on assignment to some 60 countries for the publications of the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, Outside, Men’s Journal, Esquire, STERN.
Raised on a cattle ranch, he is passionate about storytelling and unique ways to communicate them. His perspective on capturing water-related stories led American Photo Magazine to list him as one of the nation’s top five water photographers.
After a decade working mostly abroad, McBride decided to focus his cameras closer to home on a subject closer to his heart.
Combining his passion for aviation and his belief in conservation, he spent more than two years documenting his local river – the Colorado. This journey culminated in the coffee-table book The Colorado River: Flowing through Conflict and an award-winning short film, Chasing Water.
Chasing Water won some 20 film-festival awards in 2011 and 2012, including Best Short Documentary at Canada’s Banff Mountain Film Festival, Best Environmental Film at England’s Kendal Mountain Festival and Best Documentary at Florida’s Clear Water Festival.
His film Delta Dawn, documenting a release of water that allowed the Colorado River to flow uninterrupted to the sea, won the Best Short Mountain Film award at the 2014 Banff Mountain Film Festival.
McBride’s photography honors include awards from Pictures of the Year International, Photo Week DC, Communications Arts, The Society of Professional Journalists and a Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists at Stanford University.
He was awarded River Conservator by the Roaring Fork Conservancy in 2011 for his ongoing awareness work with water conservation.
Fedarko lives in northern New Mexico and works as a part-time river guide in Grand Canyon National Park.
In addition to his travel narratives in Outside, where he worked as a senior editor, his work has appeared in Esquire and National Geographic Adventure, and has been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing in 2004 and 2006.
Fedarko was a staff writer at Time magazine 1991-97, where his work helped garner an Overseas Press Club Award for a story on the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Fedarko earned a Masters of Philosophy in Russian history at Oxford in 1990.
McBride and Kevin Fedarko is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. The National Geographic Live series is sponsored in part by Sheila & Michael Bonsignore.
Tickets are $25 for the general public, $15 for UCSB students with valid student ID, and for youth age 18 and under.
For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures, 893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
UCSB Arts & Lectures acknowledges the support of SAGE Publishing for its corporate support of the 2017-18 season.
— Caitlin O’Hara for UCSB Arts & Lectures.