{"id":2445958,"date":"2019-07-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=308817"},"modified":"2019-07-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T06:00:00","slug":"five-decades-of-aspen-history-captured-on-film-by-miggs-and-dick-durrance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/five-decades-of-aspen-history-captured-on-film-by-miggs-and-dick-durrance\/","title":{"rendered":"Five decades of Aspen history, captured on film by Miggs and Dick Durrance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dick<\/a> and Miggs Durrance<\/a> captured more than five decades of Aspen history, from its rebirth as a ski resort in 1947 through its time as a global hub at the turn of the millennium.<\/p>\n

Their family has donated thousands of photos and films to the Historical Society for use by researchers and for the public to enjoy, seeing an evolving Aspen through the eyes of Miggs, an acclaimed photographer, and her husband Dick, the champion ski racer, president of the Aspen Ski Corp. and filmmaker.<\/p>\n

A new display of the Durrances\u2019 photographs at the Aspen Historical Society showcases some of the highlights from the collection. It opened to the public on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The photos had been stored in boxes in basements for years and spread among the family following Dick Durance\u2019s death in 2004. The family decided it was time to share them with the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t do anybody any good sitting in a box in a basement,\u201d Dave Durrance, their son, said on Monday. \u201cSo we are happy that there is an outlet for it, and it can continue to contribute to the history of the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He estimated there are \u201cat least 10,000\u201d images in the private collection, which also includes extensive photography of Sun Valley, Alta and the Durrances\u2019 international travels, which are bound for other archives. Dave said he his brother, Dick II, still have several more boxes to go through.<\/p>\n

The one-wall exhibit in the Aspen Historical Society\u2019s archives building is a dizzying trip through modern Aspen history, from black and white into color. There are shots of ski racers Stein and Marius Eriksen on the hill in 1950, and of Aspen icons like Walter Paepcke and Robert O. Anderson in the resort\u2019s dawning days. Photos capture early concerts of the Aspen Music Festival and conferences at the Aspen Institute, horseback riding on Red Mountain in the 1960s along with still lifes, landscapes, architectural shots, ski scenes and nature scenes and winter street scenes. There is a portrait of actor Gary Cooper at home here and one of actress Eva Marie Saint during a visit. A photo from 1990 depicts a hulking Sheriff Bob Braudis goofing around with Mayor Stacey Standley on gondola plaza.<\/p>\n

Miggs took up photography in 1947, when the family moved to Aspen and Dick took the helm of the Ski Corp. Her skills behind the camera led to a career including shoots for Life, Look, Sports Illustrated and National Geographic.<\/p>\n

The images in the Aspen Historical Society display don\u2019t specify whether each was shot by Miggs or Dick. But their sons, looking at the display Monday afternoon, could pick out which had shot each based on the composition and subject.<\/p>\n

Dave and Dick II both became visual artists themselves. Dick II as a photographer<\/a> and Dave \u2013 following a career ski racer and coach \u2013 as an abstract painter<\/a>. They both drew inspiration from their parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father had a very highly structured visual sensibility,\u201d Dick II said. \u201cI got that. And from mom, I got how to connect with the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

One astounding photograph by Miggs captures a cowboy in flight after being bucked off of a bronco at the Aspen Rodeo in 1948.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly composed picture,\u201d Dick II said. \u201cAnd I grew up with that, so I looked for that. And sometimes I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dick and Miggs Durrance captured more than five decades of Aspen history, from its rebirth as a ski resort in 1947 through its time as a global hub at the turn of the millennium. Their family has donated thousands of photos and films to the Historical Society for use by researchers and for the public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 18:59:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}