Paddle Pics

Bill Syken

April 18, 2005

You know a book of photographs is going to be thrilling when it includes a disclaimer stating that you can kill yourself if you try to re-create any of its shots. In Torrent (Heliconia Press, $45), whitewater photographer Jock Bradley captures kayakers spinning through Class V+ rapids and otherwise risking life and limb. In one of the 160-page book's most powerful images, Billy Harris and his yellow kayak appear as a speck as they drop over a massive falls in Ottawa (above). Whether Bradley shoots from underwater or when dangling from a bridge, his unique perspectives take you to the world's wildest rivers, safely.