Roger Brown '57, adventure photographer: a guest on the mountain

In a lifetime, the adventure sportsman searches out and measures himself against many obstacles. In this quest, he makes attempts and meets challenges. Ultimately, there is success or failure. Ice, water, rock, or air he battles the elements on their grounds, be it with kayak, ice ax, a pair of skis, or hang glider.

During his career, the filmmaker works to perfect skills in the art of cinematography. He photographs, directs, and produces.

Roger Cotton Brown '57 has combined cinematography with adventure sports. Choosing one to observe the other, he performs his work with skill and apparent ease.

But the story of the man behind the camera is complex. It reads like the best of adventure stories. Brown determined early to live his life fully. He found a way to do it. What one person may experience as the expedition of a lifetime, Brown plans as part of his routine work. Along the way, he observes and reflects.

"I am an image collector and a storyteller," Brown says. But the images he chooses to frame and the stories he recounts are drawn from a segment of life that most experience only vicariously, perhaps in the pages of such publications as National Geographic.

Roger Brown is a documentarist with an eye for beauty. He is an interpreter of motion. He has an understanding of the blending qualities of music. In photographing sports, he takes the viewer along on an adventure into his art.

To accomplish what he does, Roger participates in adventure sports, maintaining skill levels which allow him to photograph with clarity and to survive to sell his work. He skis forward or backward at high speeds, seeing where he's filming but not where he's going. In difficult white water, he paddles and rolls a kayak with camera attached. His mountain climbing experience means he can carry equipment on his back up to where the action is. He films from helicopters, legs dangling, strapped to a camera that is mounted inside the bubble.

How did it start? His father wanted him to study economics in college, but Roger discovered English and philosphy. As a ski racer he observed what was happening in competition, and the philosophy of the sport intrigued him.

He began making films in 1961. He filmed a ski descent of Mount Rainier, traveled to the glaciers of Mount Ararat in Turkey, and made a film to promote a brand new ski area in the Rocky Mountains Vail, Colo. He stayed on in Vail, making ski films such as, Ski the OuterLimits, The Incredible Skis, and The MoebiusFlip.

He was once described by an associate as "a highly dedicated, intense, talented New Englander. He's a real Yankee, in many ways. He's reserved socially, not particularly talkative, and incredibly singleminded."

Although disaster has never been very far away, Roger Brown's adventures do not lie solely in the realm of daredevil activity but rather in his innovative filmmaking. Adventure sports are the means to an end. Brown doesn't believe that man ever conquers the elements. One is simply a guest on the mountain.

Eighty different clients and more than 130 films fill his resume. His portfolio includes network television documentaries, commercials, features, and promotional and environmental films. "Film is an experience. I like it. Film captures 'moments' beautifully," Brown said.

The list of what he has accomplished is impressive. He has earned an Emmy for a 1981 "ABC Sportsman" show, 19 Cine Golden Eagles, and grand prizes from film festivals all over the world. In all, he has received 24 major national and international first place awards. In 1983 he was voted Best Colorado Filmmaker for a movie shot on the Payette River in Idaho.

It would be difficult to name a geographical location where Roger Brown has not filmed. Always though, home is the chosen environment. He works half-time and works to get work the other half. He is aware that by living in the mountains of Colorado he is "out of the marketplace" specifically New York and Los Angeles as filmmakers go. "I have a hugh territorial imperative. I wanted a life-style that would put me in a pure, clear environment," he said.

Brown's current project involves instructional videotapes, using a right-brain learning technique called 'sports imaging.' He is working with former Olympians Phil and Steve Mahre, who exemplify perfect skiing techniques, as well as friends from the Dartmouth class of '57. Brown explains the theme behind 'sports imaging' as a switch for him from intimidating ski films to invitational films.

"I am a nomad with no traditional routes to follow," Brown once wrote in a journal. Unlike the traditionalists and formalists in the film industry, he doesn't believe there are rules for anything. Instead, he says, "Your own internal rules are more important."

The development of a life philosophy began to show in The Edge, "a poignant commentary on the condition of the human spirit," as one newspaper critic put it, with a "theme that runs very deep into life philosophy."

His philosophy is deep-rooted: "I have let go. I could never be disappointed because I've led a full life. When one . . .

accepts the idea of death, the imagination can suddenly be liberated."

Thinking of the futures of his three sons, he wants them to learn one or two things really well so they will know what it is to experience that feeling of accomplishment. It will also give them more possibilities to choose from. Gordon is learning the business of filmmaking. Mike is at college in Colorado. Nick will join Dartmouth class of '9O.

At home, when he's not in the studio or working out, Roger gardens, hunts, and fishes. He has raised 200 pounds of potatoes in a summer and walks into the mountains alone to stalk deer and elk.

When he's working, however, his concentration is unwavering. His intensity is absolute.

Photographer Roger Brown '57 took to the moun-tains to film a Buick commercial in the fall of1985. The commercial was a test of both the car'sand Roger's ability to operate in the snow.

Rosalie Isom is a free-lance writer who lives inColorado. Her current adventure sports includetennis and windsurfing.