National Geographic photographer, filmmaker and environmentalist Jim Brandenburg died last week at age 79.
While the art and nature world last week lost a legendary creator, Rock County residents who knew Brandenburg lost a native son.
“I don't think about Jim first as the famous wildlife photographer that he became,” said Randy Creeger, who grew up with Brandenburg in Luverne.
“I think of him as the neighborhood boy in my hometown when his family moved off the farm. I knew him as quiet and always in pursuit of nature.”
Creeger, a retired Luverne businessman, said his friend remained humble and gracious to the end.
“At the high point in his time working for National Geographic, I was walking through an airport and had not seen Jim in years, but here he was walking toward me,” Creeger recalled.
“Our conversation immediately went to him asking me multiple questions about my life. Not once did he try to direct the conversation to himself and his success.”
Creeger in 2001 became an ally in Brandenburg’s quest to restore the native tallgrass prairie in Rock County.
As president of the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation, Creeger helped with the vision of saving this “magical place” known as Touch the Sky Prairie only a mile from the farm where Brandenburg grew up.
“I will miss my friend but will cherish the last 25 years of working with him and Judy on Touch the Sky Prairie,” Creeger said Sunday.
The Brandenburg Foundation Board oversees what’s now more than 1,200 acres of the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge in Touch the Sky Prairie.
‘Breathe’
Luverne artist, musician and teacher Chris Nowatzki also serves on the foundation board and said he appreciated Brandenburg’s way with words.
“Besides his amazing cinematography, exquisite still shots … what struck me most about Jim was his voice,” Nowatzki said Sunday. “Every time I heard Jim speak, I instantly relaxed … and I could feel him saying ‘breathe.’”
He said Brandenburg’s voice seemed in tune with nature.
“Jim’s voice had the quiet power one feels when standing under a giant redwood or looking off the edge of the Grand Canyon or wading ankle deep in the ocean,” Nowatzki said.
“It was filled with grace, strength, gentleness, wisdom, curiosity and determination. He’s going to be terribly missed, but I know his legacy will live on in his work.”
Brandenburg’s voice can still be heard in a recording played over the speaker at the Brandenburg Gallery in Luverne that sells the artist’s prints and books to support the prairie restoration.
The gallery started on Luverne’s Main Street in Creeger’s former retail clothing space and later moved to the renovated Sioux quartzite jail building next to the courthouse.
‘He shared his love through his lens’
The Brandenberg Gallery is managed by the Luverne Area Chamber and Jane Wildung Lanphere.
“One of the biggest honors I had in working for the Chamber was the opportunity to work with Jim and Judy in the operation of the gallery and promotion of Touch the Sky Prairie,” Lanphere said.
She said Brandenburg will be best remembered for his passion and love for nature and for individual people.
“Through his photography, he shared his love of nature by opening our eyes to the miracles of nature throughout the world, giving us a unique insight into the prairie and beyond,” Lanphere said.
“Whether you met Jim for the first time or the 100th, he always had that sincere connection and interest in you.”
She said she came to know him as a person who loved life and the opportunities he was blessed with to experience nature, people and places around the world.
“He shared his love through the lens and giving back to our community,” Lanphere said.
“The many times that we asked him for a favor or something special, he was always willing to do his best to make it happen … because he loved the people and places of this community.”
She quoted the Greek leader Pericles in describing her late friend: “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”
Lanphere said, “I believe that is how Jim lived his life. … He shared the light of his life with the world and the world is a much better place because of him.”
Rock County Hall of Fame and Luverne Alumni Hall of Fame
The people in Brandenburg’s hometown were immensely proud of him and his accomplishments and inducted him into the Rock County Hall of Fame and the Luverne Alumni Hall of Fame.
Both organizations outline the artist’s long history of professional accomplishments and accolades.
He was most recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from his colleagues at the National Geographic magazine and his peers at The Photo Society.
Only five others have received the prestigious award, yet he credited his upbringing in the Luverne community for his career successes.
“I feel that growing up in Luverne was a crucial part of my ability to go out in the world and do the things that brought me to this place,” he was quoted as saying in the 2023 Star Herald story about the award.
“I feel so very fortunate to have come from the Rock County culture. I mention it often when doing presentations. … The old prairie farmer work ethic and the care and nurturing that I got looking back on my boyhood years stays with me.”
The National Geographic Lifetime Achievement Award joined a long list of awards and recognitions the photographer from Luverne had amassed over his professional career.
Twenty years prior he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association.
In 1991 he was awarded the Global 500 Environmental World Achievement Award through the United Nations for his work with the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, Nature Conservancy and others.
In 2001 Brandenburg was named a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens and in 2002 a Hasselblad Master by the Swedish camera maker.
From 2005-08 he was a Canon Explorer of Light photographer.
In 2006 he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
In 2009 his famous image of the leaping Arctic wolf was named among 100 most important photos in Canadian history and was included in the book, “100 Photos that Changed Canada.”
In 2010 Outdoor Photography Magazine included Brandenburg in its “40 Most Influential Nature Photographers.”
Four of Brandenburg’s images were included in The Top Forty, a collection of “40 most important nature photographs of all time,” as compiled by the International League of Conservation Photographers.
‘It takes a village’
Brandenburg got his start in photography at age 14 with a $3 camera and an image of a shy fox he captured in the Blue Mounds State Park. It was his first published photograph.
He graduated from Luverne High School in 1963 and studied art at the University of Minnesota, first in the Twin Cities, then in Duluth.
He was a photojournalist at the Worthington Daily Globe and then at National Geographic, where he first freelanced and then became a contract photographer in 1978.
By 1986 his Arctic wolves documentary attracted world recognition with its images of places in nature rarely captured on film.
Amid a lifetime of international work and professional awards, Brandenburg never forgot his roots.
“I am especially appreciative and beyond grateful for all the family and friends that helped pave the way,” he told the Star Herald after his 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.
He said he hesitated to thank individuals, for fear of overlooking someone, but he mentioned several who influenced him in his early years who “took me under their wings and gave me gifts that I didn't appreciate at the time like I do now.”
He mentioned Ralph Herreid, Fred Manfred, Al Winter “who provided inspiration and wisdom,” and his Aanenson and Brandenburg family that he was “lucky to be born into.”
He said he wished he was able to express gratitude that is deserved. “It certainly ‘takes a village,’” Brandenburg said.
“And, of course, how lucky was I to have met that shy girl from Hardwick in art class in the 10th grade ... Judy has been my keel and patient adviser through all these years.”
‘Take a walk in nature’
A social media post on Saturday shared the news of Brandenburg’s passing on Friday, April 4.
He was being treated for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma the past seven months, with additional complications from pneumonia this year.
His passing was only weeks after he and Judy lost their 54-year-old son, Anthony, on Feb. 24.
“Please hold his wife Judy, daughter Heidi and her husband Nels Pierson, grandchildren Olivia, Liam and Lindsey, and all those who loved Jim in your hearts,” they wrote Saturday.
They encouraged people to honor the Brandenburg family “by taking a walk in nature, looking up at the clouds and feel the transformation of Jim’s energy back into the universe.”
