Adventure Photographer Jimmy Chin to Speak at Wallace Stegner Lecture Series

Interaction with the Natural World Inspires Breathtaking Photographs and Films

(Palo Alto, Calif.) — Jimmy Chin, internationally recognized expedition photographer, climber, skier and 14-year veteran of the North Face Athlete Team, launches The Peninsula Open Space Trust’s (POST’s) 2017 Wallace Stegner Lecture series. On January 31, the photographer and elite mountaineer will describe how the natural world inspires his work and will tell stories about making his award-winning 2015 documentary, Meru. The lecture begins at 8 PM at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $40, and can be purchased at openspacetrust.org.

Chin has filmed the world’s best adventurers, climbers and skiers as they undertake breakthrough and sometimes death-defying outdoor challenges throughout the world. He has traversed across Tibet’s 17,000-foot-high Chang Tang Plateau, made first ascents in the Karakoram, and is one of a select few to have skied Mount Everest from the summit. As a photographer and professional athlete, Chin is in the unique position of working on both sides of the camera: his photographs have appeared on the cover of National Geographic and he has been featured inside the magazine as well. His work has been recognized by Photo District News, Communication Arts, the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Lowell Thomas Journalism Awards.

In his lecture, Chin will discuss how nature inspires his work and love of adventure, as well as tell stories about making Meru, the 2015 documentary that won the Audience Choice Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Noble and Lorraine Hancock, and Alex Wang Real Estate, are sponsoring the talk.

Chin’s discussion is the first in the 2017 Wallace Stegner Lecture Series, followed by a talk from beat generation poet, essayist and environmental activist Gary Snyder on February 21. Snyder will talk about the connections between his life and nature and how his life’s work has been inspired by his deep connection to the natural world. Mark Bittman will close out the series on March 21. The author of 14 books, journalist and former New York Times columnist on Policy, Agriculture, Health and the Environment will share insights he gained while producing California Matters, a documentary about the intersection of environmental issues and food production in our state.

POST’s Wallace Stegner Lectures, now in its 25^th year, celebrates the conservation legacy of the late writer and environmentalist Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Stanford University professor and protector of the West’s wild places. This year’s lectures share the common theme of Drawing Inspiration from Nature, which ties closely to POST’s mission of protecting open space in and around Silicon Valley.

The late Ambassador Laurence W. Bill Lane and his wife, Jean, have sponsored the Wallace Stegner Lectures since its inception in 1993. Jean continues this tradition of sponsorship in memory of Bill, who passed away in 2010. Media sponsorship is provided by Embarcadero Media, publisher of Palo Alto Weekly, Mountain View Voice, The Almanac and Palo Alto Online.

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POST is a leading private, nonprofit land trust that protects and cares for open space, farms and parkland in and around Silicon Valley. Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving more than 75,500 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. openspacetrust.org