Below the Water Line:
Photographer Chris Brunkhart’s battles with cancer, drugs, demons and desolate landscapes Story by Cameron Rasmusson for SPR Photography by Chris Brunkhart
Chris Brunkhart always has his eyes open. It’s a habit that’s served him well through his career as a photographer. As an enthusiast of the snowboarding scene from its infancy in the 1990s, he quickly learned the virtues of a handy camera and a quick shutter as he documented the early years of the sport. Brunkhart’s eyes are still open, fixed as much on the future as the opportunity for that perfect shot. Since his diagnosis with Stage 4 colon cancer last September, he’s more mindful than ever of the months to come. Still, his priorities haven’t shifted as an artist. As ever, he lives to capture those moments frozen in time, as much a historic document as a work of art. “There are a lot more stories I want to tell and a lot more things I want to shoot,” he said. “[My cancer diagnosis] lit a fire under my ass. It’s a fire that was always there, but now it’s stron10 /
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/ February 26, 2015
Sunrise over the Pack River Flats in winter ger than ever.” Brunkhart is no doubt a familiar figure to many Sandpoint residents. He moved to the town in 2009 to reconstitute himself as he struggled with a history of drug abuse. At the time, he knew Sandpoint as the hometown of his best friend, Matt Donahue. The two met when Donahue was 18 and fully immersed in the snowboarding scene. They later built upon their friendship, starting a snowboarding company and other creative endeavors together. Given that history, Sandpoint seemed as good a place as any to tackle his demons.But as he settled into a new life living in a cabin in the middle of the woods, he found the town took on a life of its own. “It was therapeutic. It was creative,” he said. “I had no car. My first North Idaho experience was chopping wood and shoveling snow.” During that time, Brunkhart and Donahue packed the Pani-
da Theater for the premiere of a short film, “Bound For Nowhere.” Shot and edited by Brunkhart and written and directed by Donahue, with a cast and crew of local luminaries, the film was a new creative experience for Brunkhart. “Before that movie, I just had still images to tell a story,” he said. “With a movie, there were all these sound effects and music. You could look into the eyes and see the tears or the joy. It was an eye-opening experience.” Donahue and Brunkhart also collaborated on a photography book, “How Many Dreams in the Dark?” A collection of essays and hundreds of Brunkhart’s photos, the book charts his history photographing the growth of snowboarding. It was another opportunity for Brunkhart and Donahue to take advantage of their unique creative chemistry. “I bring a real enthusiasm into the process, and when
Chris hears that, it just fires up his brain,” Donahue said. While it was Sandpoint’s nature and people that make it memorable for Brunkhart today, it didn’t hurt that it was also a go-to location for snowboarding enthusiasts. By the time Brunkhart arrived in Sandpoint, the sport was everywhere: the ski slopes were dotted with boarders and professionals were earning fat checks through sponsorships and competitions. As a young man in the Pacific Northwest during the ‘90s, Brunkhart saw a much different picture—pictures he captured on a daily basis. He rode alongside some of the legends of the movement back when boarders were a disreputable and disrespected influence at most resorts. As the athletes Brunkhart ran with became more bold and more adventurous, he was right alongside them, capturing their increasingly impressive feats. These were people Brunkhart liked and respected—people
just at home with a chord progression or a poetic verse as they were on a ski slope. “They were my friends, they were my comrades, but they were also my subjects,” he said. The snowboarding movement grew, and with it Brunkhart’s skill and reputation as a photographer. He traveled the world as one of the sport’s premiere photographers. He captured not only the tricks and the technique of his subjects, but also the culture and the lifestyle of the time. “My take on it was that this was about more than shooting a trick,” he said. “It was about the whole adventure. It was about how we got [to shooting locations]. It was about what we did in our downtime. I always had my camera nearby. Whether we were drinking or doing drugs or creating masterpieces of art, it was always the same.” As Brunkhart grew older, his interest in subjects shifted. It was only a few years ago he (Story con’t on next page)