‘Free Solo’ Director Jimmy Chin’s ‘There and Back’ Is the Photography Collection You Didn’t Know You Needed
There and Back: Photographs from the Edge is available in hardcover Nov. 16.
Courtesy of Clarkson Potter & Ten Speed Press
Jimmy Chin’s list of accolades is extensive. He’s an Academy Award-winning director, world-class mountaineer, and a National Geographic photographer. Now, the creative force behind Free Solo can add a stunning hardcover collection of photography to his perpetually growing resume.
There and Back: Photographs from the Edge gives fans an intimate look at the world from Chin’s vantage point through stunning photographs and thoughtful passages, all culminating in what author Jon Krakauer characterized as “an extraordinary work of art.”
More than 200 still images captured from over two decades of Chin’s death-defying adventures spanning all seven continents, such as dangling thousands of feet above the Earth alongside Yosemite’s El Capitan or descending Mount Everest on skis, provide unique perspectives from extreme destinations few will ever see.
More Videos From Sunset
“Jimmy Chin is one of the most widely traveled and experienced adventure photographers on Earth, and this collection is an absolute tour de force,” climber and Free Solo star Alex Honnold said in a release. “I read this book in a single sitting and finished feeling inspired to take on the world.”
Images also feature accompanying behind-the-scenes information about the harrowing processes in which Chin embarked to produce art amid some of the world’s most unforgiving environments.
“It was an epic journey putting it all together and it made me realize how fortunate I have been to work, play and collaborate with so many amazing people and friends,” Chin wrote on Instagram. “Much gratitude to all of you.”
There and Back: Photographs from the Edge is available in hardcover Nov. 16.
Of course, Chin’s upcoming ventures include much more than the release of a photography collection.
E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Chin, the creative team behind the 2019 Oscar-winning Free Solo, unveiled this year a full slate of projects they’re set to take on. The filmmaking duo confirmed plans for numerous upcoming projects through Nat Geo, including a 10-episode miniseries and two feature length films.
Titled Into the Unknown, the miniseries will spend each episode highlighting the most daring personalities in adventure sports—from climbers to polar explorers—performing in unforgiving conditions around globe.
The duo is set to direct a pair of films including The Rescue, a documentary about the 12 youth soccer players and a coach who were saved from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 by a team of international rescue divers in what ABC News called “one of the most dramatic rescues that the world has ever seen.”
Vasarhelyi and Chin will also tackle a movie about Diana Nyad, a 64-year-old marathon swimmer—played by Annette Bening—who attempts to become the first person to swim the distance between Cuba and Florida.
Chin is also currently serving on the 10-person Explore Fund Council, launched in May by The North Face, which is taking aim at promoting inclusivity in the outdoors by addressing longstanding sociological barriers.
This Came from the 2021 Waters of the West Issue—Read It Here!
Get one year of Sunset—and all kinds of bonuses—for just $24.95. Subscribe now!
