Photographer’s roots ran deep
Boise’s Stan Burns dies; he was active outdoors and in environmental circles
Longtime Boise photographer Stan Burns taught his family an important lesson, daughter Marilyn Bickle said.
“Go do it. Go see it. Go experience it. No matter what your passion is,” she said.
Burns died Oct. 25 from congestive heart failure and bladder cancer. He was 84.
His accomplishments are evidence he practiced what he taught: Camping in Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains with his lifelong friend Sen. Frank Church in the 1960s; helping create the Boise Greenbelt in 1969; hiking and fishing at more than 80 Idaho lakes, often with his ill-mannered but talented bird dog, Zeke.
Longtime Boiseans are familiar with the family’s log-cabin photography studio and home at the corner of 13th and State streets, built by Burns’ father in 1919.
A fourth-generation Idahoan, Burns was known for his unique black-and-white portraits and photographed such local dignitaries as Joe Albertson, founder of the Albertsons grocery store chain, and J.R. Simplot, founder of the J.R. Simplot Co. Burns operated the studio until he retired in 1986. Now Marilyn and her husband, Kelly, run the studio.
Burns was a member of the “May Day” group, an eclectic group of environmental activists that included Bruce Bowler, an attorney known for legal victories that prevented Hells Canyon from being flooded by dams; Ernie Day, a real estate manager and landscape photographer; Ted Trueblood, a writer for Field & Stream magazine; Franklin Jones, owner of a Boise print shop; Jim Baughman, a lumberyard owner; and Al Klotz, a chemist and director of labs for the state health department.
Early each May, from 1962 to 1974, the group took a five-day break from their skirmishes with mining companies, timber barons and other powerful opponents. They loaded tents and gear into outboard motorboats and set off on an annual fishing trip, most often on the Owyhee Reservoir in eastern Oregon.
An avid fly fisherman, Burns spent weeks at Henry’s Lake in northeastern Idaho, Bickle said. He logged many hours fly-fishing in area reservoirs.
“You name it, he fished it,” she said.