A Bit More Dick
I’m sure you have never heard of this man; however, I feel it’s truly important for people to know who he is. Richard “Dick” Proenneke was truly one of a kind, with a history and legend so great that a blog post may not be able to do it justice. I will, however, try my very best.
Born in 1916, little did this great man know that just 83 years later, he would win one of the best awards possible in the human race. No, not the Nobel Prize, despite what moronic presidents say about it. This man won the 1999 NOBA ( National Outdoor Book Award). I am sure many of you have not heard of this award, and being honest, until I had heard of Dick, I hadn’t either. However, in terms of great awards, this one really is fantastic. The lists of the previous winners have quickly gone into my reading lists, as I am a huge fan of outdoor and adventure tales.
Dick served in the US Navy during WW2 from 1941 to 1945; however, he never saw any action. He worked as a carpenter at Pearl Harbour and signed up the day after the infamous attack took place. Sadly, he developed a fever whilst climbing a nearby mountain one day and was put on sick leave when the war inevitably ended, and Dick was discharged. The fever, however, played on Dick’s mind, and he was now determined to devote the rest of his life to health and his body.
After the Navy, Dick learnt his trade as a diesel mechanic. However, it’s clear he wanted a bit more wilderness in life, so he worked as a sheep herder in Oregon before moving to Alaska and picking back up working on large machinery at the Kodiak Naval station in Alaska. However, it’s clear from reading about him that he never really wanted to be part of society. At least not the mainstream society to which he was exposed. Working both as a mechanic and a salmon fisherman allowed Dick to save fairly quickly and have enough to retire in no time.
For me, I don’t think retirement will ever be an option, given the state of the economy in this current day. But if I could, I would love nothing more than to do it like Dick. Most people think of a small cottage in a nice village somewhere. Maybe a nice lawn to tend and to have grandkids over at the weekend and bank holidays? Well, Dick took it one step further. A nice lake with no cottage unless he built it.
So on the 21st of May 1968, Dick set out to Twin Lakes to build his own retirement home where he would live for the next 30 or so years. Staying in a friend’s cabin as he built his by hand, not only did he do this insanely technical task quickly, but he also filmed the project on 8mm film. This was immortalised in the PBS documentary “Alone In The Wilderness”.
Dick sadly passed in 2003 from a stroke and left everything he had to the Parks service in Alaska, along with his cabin, which is now a museum to his life and legacy as the man who chose a life outside the norm.
So why, on a photography blog, am I writing about this somewhat odd man who chose to retire to the Alaskan wilderness for 30 years? My point is, Dick didn’t do what he did for anyone other than himself. When he retired out to that cabin with a Bolex, some 8mm film, and a tripod, Dick wasn’t thinking about creating for an audience. He was just living the way he wanted to and happened to create at the same time. I think all of us as photographers and creatives should strive to be more like Dick. Create just to create, forget the audience, forget the attention you may or may not get. Just create because you love it.
