photographer/cinematographer
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Rex Ziak taught himself
photography while he was still working in the woods as a third-generation logger. He built his own darkroom and learned to process film. His growth as a photographer was influenced by his study of the fine art photography of masters like Adams, Weston, White, and Penn.
Years later, while residing in a Mexican village, Rex used his photographic skills to document a disappearing culture [see "Explorer/Anthropologist"]. When he returned home, his Mexican photographs attracted attention, and he was soon being paid to travel around the world to capture images for various clients. Rex’s career in still photography eventually led to assignments in cinematography. His very first assignment was for a major television network, a 1992 documentary titled "Tall Ship: High Sea Adventure" for ABC World of Discovery, which won Rex an Emmy for cinematography. |
This compelling film, documenting the training of young Danish merchant marine recruits on the tall ship Danmark as they crossed the turbulent North Atlantic, amazed its viewers with its crows-nest view of the ship. Several reviews praised the extraordinary shots obtained by a camera strapped to the top mast; what the reviewers didn’t know is that the camera was being held by Rex, who used his experience as a topper of tall trees in the Northwest woods to secure himself to the mast so that he could film down the rigging as the young sailors climbed up. Rex’s images from "Tall Ship" were also published as a photographic essay in Life magazine.
This story of how a youthful hobby became a passion and a career, leading to the highest professional recognition, makes an inspiring motivational presentation [see "Speaker"]. Rex’s personal experience as a photographer and cinematographer proves what can be accomplished with passion, courage, and persistence. |
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Tall Ships, Small Towns" by M. L. Lyke January 3, 1994
Believe Ziak’s stories when you hear them.
True: He had never spent more than a couple of hours on sailboats before his 124 days aboard the Danish square-rigger. On board, he logged 9,600 nautical miles from Denmark to New York and back. True: He’d never shot a film before. ... Pros ... are impressed with the technical prowess of the self-taught photographer, whose in-the-thick-of-it pictures were featured in a 1992 Life magazine spread. One shows a 33-foot wave breaking over the rail of the Danmark, right before it smashed into Ziak. ... Hanging from masts in his French mountain-climbing harness, pushing out with his feet to get a clear shot, or hanging one-handed from rope ratlines, Ziak kept the lens focused as the ship pitched and heaved in the North Atlantic, sometimes rolling 70 degrees in heavy seas. ... Heights were too great to survive a fall to deck, the water too rough and cold to be rescued at sea. Was he frightened? ... "I understood years and years ago I was going to die. I don’t let the thought of wanting to live to 70 or 80 stop me from living now." |
The Chinook Observer "And the winner is ... Rex Ziak" by Nancy Butterfield September 21, 1993
Besides movie footage, Ziak also shot stills of the Danmark’s voyage for publicity purposes. The still photos were used all over the country and also were picked up by Life magazine. Ziak says John Lipscomb [member of the documentary crew] said, "This is your first time out and you get an Emmy and you get in Life. I don’t know if that’s ever been done before with stills and film."
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d e s i g n by
cheth