{"id":44160,"date":"2019-02-22T16:55:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T00:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=44160"},"modified":"2020-05-22T12:51:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T19:51:43","slug":"irene-yee-on-busting-myths-of-climbing-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/irene-yee-on-busting-myths-of-climbing-photography","title":{"rendered":"Irene Yee On Busting Myths Of Climbing Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Irene Yee, a climber and photographer based in Las Vegas, received an invitation to participate in a pilot course for the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) women\u2019s single-pitch instructor course in 2018, she turned it down. But not because she wasn\u2019t excited about it. Maybe it was better to let someone else\u2014who actually aspired to become a guide\u2014take that spot, she says. \u201cBut I [was] happy to photograph\u2014because it\u2019s something that needs to be seen and shown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two

All photos by Irene Yee<\/p><\/div>\n

So she went to document the course, at\u00a0at Red Rocks Canyon National Recreation Area, which was a precursor to the AMGA\u2019s new women\u2019s rock guide course\u2014the first of its kind\u2014and part of a larger discussion about the number of women climbing guides in general<\/a>. Yee captured the students practicing with anchors and knots and listening to their instructors, and then shared the photos with her more than 51,000 Instagram followers<\/a>. It was important for her to diversify the images people see of what rock climbers\u2014and climbing guides\u2014look like, she says, because it was a photo that first opened her own mind to the idea that she could be a rock climber herself.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, the reason I\u2019d never climbed was that it intimidated me,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was for me. The people I saw \u2026 I didn\u2019t look like those people. So I thought, that\u2019s not for me because I\u2019m this way and I wear these clothes. \u2026 But I saw this photo of Sasha DiGiulian with painted fingernails<\/a>. And I thought, she\u2019s a little girly\u2014but doing this thing at a high level!\u201d It showed Yee that those two things were not mutually exclusive. Now, Yee says, she focuses on portraying women\u2019s strength in her photos, because that\u2019s what she thinks she would have found encouraging when she first started climbing. \u201cIf I can be a small part of this, to help people feel empowered to do something they might be scared of, that\u2019s an incredible thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Yee began rock climbing while she was looking for work as a theater technician after moving from Boston to Las Vegas in 2013. \u201cI went to a meetup at a gym. I was super scared about it, but I thought I might make some friends,\u201d she says. She went to the meetup twice and then was invited to climb outdoors. \u201cThat first day outside, I was like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.\u201d Rock climbing gave her lessons in confidence, decision-making and learning to trust herself\u2014and those lessons filtered into the rest of her life.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Initially, she began taking photos of her climbing days simply to remember them herself\u2014and, possibly, to scare her dad on Facebook, she says. But when she won a lens that attached to her smartphone at a company holiday party, she began shooting more, and posting photos of herself and her friends. And she found other women who shared how she felt about climbing.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, you\u2019re not making history,\u201d she says, \u201cbut you\u2019re super stoked about it. You\u2019re so excited just going up one grade.\u201d Her social media following grew, and she held on to that idea\u2014that climbing is more about stoke level than specific grades. Her bold, brightly colored photos more often focus on the subject\u2019s try-hard expression, or an articulation of joy, than on the route itself, and its difficulty.<\/p>\n

Throughout this process, Yee has been forced to examine her own assumptions about what a climbing photographer\u2019s life should look like. Instead of conforming to what she and others perceive climbing photography to be, she\u2019s focused on being true to herself and what she wants out of life\u2014and she\u2019s excited to help other people challenge the status quo, too. Here are three myths Yee is dispelling for aspiring climbing photographers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to buy the most expensive photography gear<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cYou can buy nice gear, but you can\u2019t buy creativity,\u201d Yee says. \u201cI think not having a lot makes you more creative.\u201d For example, one of Yee\u2019s more unique shots is a selfie she took while practicing jumaring\u2014a way she could move up and down a rope to get a good angle for shooting photos. She taped a camera to her rope, set it on a time-lapse, and then ascended and descended the rope several times. She captured a photo of her face, perfectly framed by a carabiner. Many of her early shots were taken with a smartphone camera, with an attachable lens. \u201cI challenge you to take a cellphone photo\u2014it will make you more creative and stoked for a challenge. Every time I stepped up my equipment, I asked, will it make my photography better?\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to give up everything else and live the van life<\/b><\/h4>\n

When Yee\u2019s photography started taking off, she kept hearing from other climbers that she should move into a van and live on the road. \u201cI felt so much pressure to want to want that,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought you had to live in a tent and eat nothing but saltine crackers to be hardcore, to give up everything else.\u201d But she was happy with her home in Las Vegas. And she wanted to pursue interests in addition to climbing\u2014like her contract work as a theater technician. \u201cIt took me a while to not feel bad about my dream of wanting my own bed and place to stay,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m all about challenging what people think is right. There\u2019s nothing wrong with wanting a little stability in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to climb super-duper hard<\/b><\/h4>\n

Yee\u2019s favorite moments for capturing a photo are when a woman\u2019s strength comes through in her facial expression, she says\u2014\u201cany time a woman just looks baller.\u201d And that doesn\u2019t have to be putting up a first ascent or climbing the toughest grades. It doesn\u2019t even have to be leading. \u201cYou have to photograph what you know,\u201d she says. And for her, that means stoke. \u201cI don\u2019t care what grade you\u2019re climbing, I care how excited you are doing it. \u2026 My tagline is, I don\u2019t care about your skill level\u2014I care about your passion level.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Irene Yee, a climber and photographer based in Las Vegas, received an invitation to participate in a pilot course for the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) women\u2019s single-pitch instructor course in 2018, she turned it down. But not because she wasn\u2019t excited about it. Maybe it was better to let someone else\u2014who actually aspired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":44176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[734,726,727,53,442,651],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-44160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climb","tag-climbing","tag-force-of-nature","tag-latest-posts","tag-photography","tag-rock-climbing","tag-women"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/climb\/irene-yee-on-busting-myths-of-climbing-photography","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Irene Yee On Busting Myths Of Climbing Photography","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/irene-yee-on-busting-myths-of-climbing-photography","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/climb\/irene-yee-on-busting-myths-of-climbing-photography"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/02\/Selfie-by-Irene-Yee-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/02\/Selfie-by-Irene-Yee-1.jpg?fit=2000%2C1000"},"articleSection":"Climb","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["climbing","force of nature","latest posts","photography","rock climbing","women"],"dateCreated":"2019-02-23T00:55:03Z","datePublished":"2019-02-23T00:55:03Z","dateModified":"2020-05-22T19:51:43Z"},"rendered":"