Last week, the climber and filmmaker Renan Ozturk took over The New Yorker’s Instagram feed to share images from a recent expedition to the Bugaboos, a mountain range in British Columbia. Below is a selection of the images posted to Instagram, along with their captions from the feed, followed by a short interview with the photographer.





1 / 11 Chevron Chevron A new adventure begins in the alpine wonderlands of the #Bugaboos mountains! This is filmmaker/photographer @renan_ozturk sharing images this week fresh from the field from our @thenorthface @camp4collective #unearthed film project. Stay tuned for a close look into the #expedition #climbing life.

What is your background, both as a climber and as a filmmaker, artist, and photographer?

After college and a degree in biology, I diverted from my studies and hit the road to pursue climbing and landscape art full time. That consisted of six years of living out of a backpack and hitching rides from climbing friends between national parks such as Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Canyonlands. Eventually, I became part of the North Face athlete team and gained the opportunity to take my climbing and art all around the globe. During these expeditions, I was driven to take up filmmaking in order to bring back more immersive stories to share these experiences. I don’t think I’ve ever called myself a photographer, but perhaps my newfound Instagram addiction classifies? Currently, I stay busy with a mix of all of the above: travelling on expeditions, film shoots, and art projects around the planet as part of the North Face athlete team and Camp 4 Collective, the production company I co-founded.

Briefly tell me about this expedition, and why it is significant.

Our Bugaboos expedition was one of the official adventures supported by The North Face this year. Our team really made the trip special, with a multigenerational representation of individuals who have all had significant impacts on the world of climbing. First, we had Conrad Anker (@conradclimber), the North Face athlete team leader and one of the most experienced expedition climbers on the planet. He is commonly known for discovering George Mallory’s body on Everest, but to us he has been an amazing mentor in terms of how to live the climbing life as low-impact as possible with respect to the mountains and cultures within them. Jimmy Chin (@jimmy_chin) also joined us. He is one of the most sought-after expedition storytellers of his generation, a true veteran of the expedition life, and a big creative mentor for me. Next, we had our friend Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold), the young gun who has emerged as one of the greatest free-solo climbers (meaning he uses no ropes) of all time. Alex is starting to become a household name with appearances on “60 Minutes” and other mainstream media, but the fame has left his personality and love for climbing unscathed. Last, I was working with Rob Frost (@robfrostmedia) on the video production. Rob is a veteran climbing cinematographer from New Hampshire, and we were lucky to have him for his climbing and shooting skills as well as witty humor. Besides the goal of pushing the limits of climbing in one of the most iconic alpine climbing areas in the world, we were also tasked with testing prototype equipment to make the necessary changes before going to market.

What roles do photography and filmmaking play in your expeditions? Do you prioritize them, and if so, how and why?

Filmmaking plays a huge role in every expedition I embark on these days. For me, the success of a climb has less to do with reaching a summit and is more about the power of the story you bring back to share with others. Expedition-style productions are very different from commercial productions in terms of how you prioritize your shooting and operate on all levels. Although filmmaking is a top priority, we have to be as low-impact on the athletes as possible so that team can stay focussed on the objectives at hand and maintain the true authenticity of the expedition. While shooting first-ascent territory, places with objective hazards (avalanches, icefalls, rockfalls), or free-solo climbing, there are usually no second takes and everything happens in the moment. If you miss it, then it’s gone. This means we must do our best to anticipate key story elements as they are happening, and constantly modify our equipment to be as light as possible so that we can stay nimble.

And where does Instagram fall on that spectrum?

Instagram has become a key player in expedition storytelling over the past few years. Sometimes the shots captured with our phones are the moments that got away from the bigger, slower cameras. It’s been amazing to see the Instagram audience for expeditions stories grow on the North Face (@thenorthface) and National Geographic (@natgeo) accounts as well as our personal feeds. Getting the chance to share our Bugaboos expedition story and insights into our lifestyle for an entire week on The New Yorker Instagram feed was a unique experience in the way we told an uninterrupted story to a completely new audience outside of our core followers. I think what The New Yorker is doing on its feed is progressive in the way it allows its followers to be immersed in different walks of life. Above all, Instagram is fun! It’s an outlet for storytelling that has sparked creativity, even for those who aren’t the official media crew on our expeditions. After a long day in the mountains, we seem to always find the energy to pull up a few of our iPhone shots and keep the creativity going!

All photos by Renan Ozturk, for The North Face and Camp 4 Collective, unless otherwise noted.