Capturing the art of ANTARCTICA; Saltspring couple charms a prince with polar passion and a photo treasure
Sandra McCulloch
Times Colonist – Victoria British Columbia
Sunday, July 15, 2007
SALTSPRING ISLAND - It's not every day Prince Charles hosts a book launch, but that's how a weighty tome produced by a Saltspring Island couple was introduced to the world.
The book has been a long time in production since the 2002 unveiling at St. James's Palace in London -- partly because of Pat and Rosemarie Keough's insistence on perfection -- but the binding of 950 copies of Antarctica was finally completed in December.
In the years leading up to the limited-edition book's final release, the Keoughs toured the world showing their astounding photos of Antarctica to thousands. While their languages vary, the worldwide passion for the polar continent is intense.
Antarctica contains 345 photographs taken by the Keoughs on the bottom of the world during two six-month periods from 1999 to 2001. They were drenched by waves breaking over the decks of ships and had to frantically protect their cameras from getting wet. They camped amid snowstorms that obliterated ice, sky and sea, where the only way to get back to camp was to follow a string of flags.
The leather-bound art book and its linen-and-velvet presentation box together weigh 12.5 kilograms, about as much as a two-year-old child, and retail for $4,500 Cdn.
Most of the 950 volumes in the press run have sold to private collectors. Among them is a wealthy Nevada industrialist who sailed his 100-foot yacht into Ganges harbour over Easter just to meet the Keoughs.
"They're displaying this book and they're turning one page a day -- it's a piece of art," said Pat Keough during an interview recently at the couple's mountaintop home overlooking the smaller Gulf Islands.
Five royal families have copies of the book, which is how Prince Charles came to offer to host the book launch at his home five years ago. "We greatly enjoyed chatting with Prince Charles and were taken by his sincerity, intensity and concern," Rosemarie said.
"His stamina, grace and his desire to serve are admirable. The prince let us know through his secretary that he treasures Antarctica."
That isn't to say the book doesn't appeal to the blue-collar crowd, such as the retired plumber from the Prairies who bought one.
It's not a book you can flip through without stopping to go back and take a second look. The pristine photography on 100-pound paper stock depicts images like swirling ice carved by frigid winds, a close-up of golden feathers on a penguin's breast, magnificent mountaintops at sunrise and a colony of penguins suspended in the void of a whiteout.
Settled in their dream home, where wood and rock play pivotal roles, the Keoughs say they're delighted with how the book has been received.
"I'm exceedingly happy with it," said Rosemarie, 46.
Pat, 61, said the book is sort of like the house they built: "It took a long time but it's done right."
The price might be high, but it was expensive to produce. Once they recoup their initial investment, the Keoughs will donate the profits toward the preservation of the albatross.
The couple met while canoeing the Nahanni River and ended up publishing a coffee-table book on that region. Now married 23 years, they have a 13-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter who trotted around the globe with their photographer parents.
Their daughter Rebekka has inherited the adventuring spirit, and this spring embarked on a solo cycling expedition across Europe.
The Keoughs sold land on Isabella Point on Saltspring for a tidy profit, enough to finance the construction of their home and ponder new projects, like an equally big art book on the Inside Passage.
They previously published six Canadian best-selling photography books, but their priorities changed when Pat was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. And, 18 months ago, Rosemarie learned she had an aggressive form of cancer. She's had surgery, months of chemotherapy, weeks of daily radiation and will have double mastectomies early next year.
Despite their troubles, the Keoughs are upbeat.
"We spend years trying to do things to the best of our abilities. Effort doesn't matter, it's the result. We'll put in the time it takes to make things special," Rosemarie said.
"You kind of think, 'How many years are you going to have to do what we want to do?' "
Rosemarie said she and her husband have similar attitudes to risk-taking.
"There are things we do that might possibly kill other people, such as hanging off a cliff to get a shot from a particular angle."
They want their book on the Antarctic to last, and decided on a superior goat leather for the cover that could protect the volume for 1,000 years.
"We learned all the steps of tanning, how come some books fall apart and others don't," Pat said.
The book might last longer than the thinning ice on Antarctica, where global warming is threatening the landscape and life depicted in the Keoughs' photography.
It's also the International Polar Year, a declaration that hasn't attracted much attention.
"With climate warming, the poles are going to see the biggest change of all," Rosemarie said. "Antarctica is important to all of us because it affects the climates and oceans of the entire world. It's the only continent that's not owned by anyone. It belongs to all citizens and it's reserved for science."
The Keoughs have their Antarctic photography on display in Hungary now. Last year, it was on view in Slovakia. Four exhibits are in the offing for the U.S., and interest is growing.
They just returned from giving an exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York City. Before that, they were in Colorado, where polar scientists gathered to view the photographs.
There is some text in the book but no heavy morals in the message, said Pat: "Beauty is something that has its own message."
Rosemarie added: "The emotional response to art is to feel good. And at times when you're fighting cancer, you're fighting multiple sclerosis, you're fighting environmental issues, you have family issues, looking at art makes you feel good."
smcculloch@tc.canwest.com
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ANTARCTICA
Printed by Hemlock Printers, Victoria
Weight of book in presentation box: 12.5 kilograms
Weight of book alone: 8.6 kilograms
Dimensions of book: 44.5 centimetres x 34 cm x 6.5 cm
Press run: 950 copies (more than half are sold)
Price: $4,500
Photos: 345 images
Purchase online through: keough-art.com, amazon.com, abebooks.com, barnesandnoble.com
Awards:
Antarctica has received a plethora of awards, including world's best photography book, nature photographer of the year, outstanding book of the year, best book arts craftsmanship, 10 international gold medals, one international silver, and 10 Canadian honours.
Pat and Rosemarie Keough, with their pictorial book. "Antarctica is important to all of us because it affects the climates and oceans of the entire world," Rosemarie says. "It's the only continent that's not owned by anyone."
Photo: Ray Smith, Times Colonist
WORDS & IMAGES
"I think there's a place for beauty. There are a lot of great people in the world doing wonderful things.,I think many of us are starved for something like this." -- Pat Keough
"These books are reaching people who have influence in the world. Whether it be Prince Charles or someone else, the books are in the hands of those who are making a difference." -- Pat Keough
"When people look at our work, they find their own messages. Scientists have looked at our imagery and asked about the behavior of whales. We photographed a newly identified species of killer whale and because of their teeth and size, scientists didn't know they predated penguins." -- Rosemarie Keough
"This book is grossly underpriced. If you put your normal margins on this book, it should cost $8,000 to $9,000. We didn't feel comfortable asking that kind of sum, although some people said we should have." -- Pat Keough
"An exhibition in Slovakia consisted of the entire book as single pages, mounted and framed along 700 linear feet of wall space. I have this crazy desire. We could produce the whole book on outdoor vinyl and it would take a whole kilometre to walk through the book. Can you imagine having the book on display outside Beacon Hill Park?" -- Rosemarie Keough
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Photographs to swell the heart ... Like a Patek Philippe, this is a book you don't own, but merely look after for the next generation -- once, of course, you've repaid the loan you took out to buy it. -- The Economist
Among the finest original art books produced in modern times ... The awards barely hint at the majesty within Antarctica. -- The Los Angeles Times
A luxurious masterpiece ... stupendously vivid. Antarctica is not a book. It's a work of art, a monument, the apogee of grandeur. -- The Today Show, NBC-TV
Spectacular photography from the world's remotest continent. -- Time
Exquisite hand-crafted book-binding with striking exotic photos. An award-winning masterpiece. -- Gulf Islands Driftwood
A book as uncompromising as the land it portrays. -- Vancouver Sun
Reinforce your coffee table. Box and book together weigh as much as a pair of fur-seal pups: 27.6 pounds. -- Forbes
Each photograph is gallery work. -- National Post
The most amazing book I've ever seen. Each page is its own artistic statement. -- National Public Radio
Turning a page of Antarctica is like melting a layer of the continent's ice .... a wild discovery every minute. -- Victoria Times Colonist
Words do little justice for properly conveying the feeling you get from cracking open Antarctica for the first time. One would expect its contents to adorn an art gallery's walls.
-- Millionaire Magazine
