2012 Banff Mountain FIlm and Book Festival
Signature Image
Matjaz Wiegele descending Planjava in Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Slovenia
© Marko Prezelj
Marko Prezelj © Steve House
The signature image on a postcard.
The annual Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival signature image represents the best in cultural, climbing, or mountain sports images from around the world. Again this year we opened up our search to the public through a competition that was featured on our website, garnering close to 1000 images. We received a broad range of fabulous images — from north shore adventures on Canada’s west coast to rock climbing in Australia and mountain biking in Bolivia. We wish to thank all of the photographers who supported us in our search.
This year, the 37th annual Festival, will be represented by Marko Prezelj’s image: Matjaz Wiegele descending Planjava in Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Slovenia. We chose this image because we feel it embodies the spirit of adventure and oozes energy. It is simple, yet active and will also work well on our marketing materials – from poster to brochure and online.
Marko explained that this image was taken about five years ago while climbing with his good friend Matjaz – who happened to be with Marko when we called to announce the news of his winning image. Marko laughed, “And now Matjaz can start his modeling career with this exposure!”
Marko is a familiar name to Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival audiences. A climbing superstar who is known for his spectacularly difficult routes and his impeccable style, Marko was a guest speaker in Banff at the Festival in 2005. Born in 1965 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, he trained in University of Ljubljana as a chemical engineer, but now works as a climbing instructor, mountain guide, and photographer – and is married with two sons.
He describes himself as an “old school” alpinist, yet most would regard his accomplishments as cutting edge. Prezelj has paired up with some of the world’s best alpinists on some astonishing climbs. He says he has experienced many very interesting ascents around the world and prefers “mixed” climbing the most. “Mixed in all aspects.The more complex the game is, the more interesting it is to find simple solutions.” He has received two Piolet d'Or awards, in 1992 with Andrej Štremfelj for their new route on the south ridge of Kangchenjunga South (8476 metres) in alpine style. The second he received in 2007 with Boris Lorenčič, for the first ascent of Chomolhari's northwest pillar. Prezelj rejected his second award because of his concern about the dangers of an alpine competition.
Of his work as a photographer, Marko says, “I started to work as a wedding photographer and now I'm trying to make my living also as an industrial photographer. Photography is another passion for me and I'm happy to work on different projects where I have to put myself on test.”
Find out more about Marko here: www.markoprezelj.com
