Hank de Vré A PREMIER SKI PHOTOGRAPHER

BY MIKE A.K. AKAY

Sincecoming to America at age 9, speaking only Dutch, Hank de Vré rose to the top of his profession as one of history’s premier ski photographers. When he talks about his career that started in the early 1980s at Palisades Tahoe, his great humility only allows him to speak of others, continually thanking those who have mentored him, those whom he respects as artists and those whom he has photographed, monuments of moments frozen in time that we can enjoy forever.

His No. 1 priority is safety and not doing more than his subjects can handle with the philosophy that “no pic is worth getting hurt for.” While looking out for each other, he has filmed the biggest names in skiing all around the world; there’s a funny story with Brad Holmes in Chile, another with Shane McConkey here at Hater’s Huck BASE jump and then in Switzerland with John Tremann. Hank’s stories and experiences are endless as he talks about Scot Schmidt, Jonny Moseley, ad campaigns for United Airlines, all these jobs stemming from a reputation he built from published photos in POWDER Magazine (back when it was cool) to dropping in to shoot stills during the filming of the iconic ski movie, “Blizzard of AAHH’S.”

Ironically, Hank came to Tahoe from New Jersey and took a job as T-Bar operator at Tahoe Ski Bowl (now part of Homewood) without knowing how to ski. Local legend Tom Lippert mentored him, telling Hank to be persistent and to keep submitting his photos to publications in spite of numerous rejections. Hank’s persistence led to success. In addition to being published in just about every ski publication on the planet, his success has been cemented in ski lore as the featured photographer for two books; Robb Gaffney’s “Squallywood” and Eric and Rob DesLauriers’ “Ski the Whole Mountain.”