The Charlie Russell fonds consists of photographs pertaining to the filming of "Grizzly Country", ranching, friends and family, wildlife, and recreational activities, ca.1961-ca.1968. The majority of the images were made in the Waterton Lakes area. There are some images made in New York City, Briti…
ca. 2520 photographs : b&w negatives ; 35 mm and 4x5, 2 transparencies; col.
History / Biographical
Andrew Charles "Charlie" Russell (August 19, 1941 – May 7, 2018) was a naturalist, photographer, pilot, wilderness guide, and rancher. One of the son's of Andy Russell and Kay Russell and grandson of Bert Riggall, Charlie grew up at the Hawk's Nest ranch on the N.E. boundary of Waterton Lake National Park.
Alongside his brother Dick Russell, Charlie assisted his father Andy in the production and filming of Grizzly Country throughout the Canadian Rockies, British Columbia, and Alaska from 1961-1964. In 1967 he returned to the Tolkat River in Alaska to photograph and observe bears alone. In 1970 he purchased a large percentage of his fathers land on Waterton's north-east border to run a cattle operation. In 1991, he made his first visit to Princess Royal Island, British Columbia, and began photographing for "Spirit Bear", a book of photographs and writings published in 1994. Beginning in 1997, Charlie spent 6 years among the grizzlies of Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia alongside artist and partner Maureen Enns. After returning to Alberta from Russia, Charlie continued to be a conservation advocate until he passed from a surgery-related complication in May 2018.
The bulk of Charlie Russell's work was destroyed in a house fire in [1991?].
Scope & Content
The Charlie Russell fonds consists of photographs pertaining to the filming of "Grizzly Country", ranching, friends and family, wildlife, and recreational activities, ca.1961-ca.1968. The majority of the images were made in the Waterton Lakes area. There are some images made in New York City, British Columbia, and Alaska.
The fonds is comprised of two series: I. Black and white negatives; II. Transparencies;
I. Black and white negatives consists of A. 1964, B. Waterton Park Flood, June 8-9, 1963, C. 35mm Books, D. 4x5 Book, E. Bert Riggall Copy Negatives. II. Transparencies consist of two 4x5 colour transparencies depicting Cal Wellman's Cattle.
Notes
I.C. was received in the form of three separate negative books. The books have been arranged numerically in subseries I.C, with the negative book book and page number of origin written on the negative sleeves. For example, V557/I/C/NA-1a to NA-6e [Book 1, pg. 1,2].
Select 35mm negatives in I.C. are marked with red stickers and overlaid with rectangles on the negative sleeve. These negatives correspond to the negatives used in "Spirit Bear" and their cropping for publication. Each image is listed and described in the case file on the document titled "These are the negs used in Spirit Bear Chapter One". Some of the dots have a number corresponding to the document, others do not (the stickers were taken from the original negative sleeves and re-applied to the new negative sleeves).