Photographers That Inspire Me - Andrew Peacock

In my eyes Australian Frank Hurley is the original ‘adventure’ photographer. His dramatic images from Antarctica and then on the battlefields of World War One in the early twentieth century set the benchmark for telling a story of human endeavour in difficult environments. A true adventurer at heart, Hurley was fearless and disciplined. His motto, inscribed on the wall of his darkroom in the hut that he and the men of Sir Douglas Mawson’s ill-fated Antarctic Expedition shared through the darkness of a freezing winter was “near enough is not good enough”. It’s a motto that I try to live up to when venturing into the outdoors with my camera. Sometimes walking further, climbing higher, staying later or getting up earlier is needed to turn a ‘near enough’ photo situation into a ‘great’ photo opportunity.

Hurley went to enormous effort to capture some astonishing images from the icy continent especially on Shackleton’s expedition when their ship ‘The Endurance’ was trapped by ice and eventually sank. Interestingly I too was on a ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica a couple of years ago. In this era of digital file manipulation I think it’s fascinating to learn that Hurley wasn’t averse to inserting or removing elements in his negatives! To learn more read ‘Frank Hurley, A photographer’s life” by Alasdair McGregor

The work of American climber and photographer Galen Rowell was a strong inspiration in my early days of photographing with slide film. He wrote books featuring his images from adventures all over the world in which he explored and discussed everything from the science of light to how to put together a lightweight custom tripod. His film of choice was Fuji Velvia, which produced a super saturated contrasty result that I like to emulate in my digital work today. Given my climbing activity at the time it was only natural that Galen was someone I followed closely.

When I decided to volunteer and work as a doctor for the Tibetan Government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. Galen had written about his connection with the Dalai Lama so I called to ask him about photographing there. It was just a quick phone call but he was friendly and encouraging. Sadly I never actually met him before his untimely death in a light plane crash. To learn more about Galen and buy his books go to www.mountainlight.com

I think of USA Nikon Ambassador Corey as the modern digital version of Galen although he well and truly earned his stripes in the film era. I met Corey rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park in California, a favourite place of mine. At the time he was cruising around photographing climbers in action and soon after he made his mark scoring many cover images with the main US climbing magazines. He has diversified well beyond climbing photography now and runs a successful business with large corporate clients including companies like Apple who value his story telling ethic and ability to get the job done under any conditions.

I was fortunate to learn from Corey as his assistant on a trip to Pakistan a few years on assignment to document a duo climb a high rocky peak in the Karakorum Mountains. It was a tough environment but Corey never skipped a beat taking on all the responsibility for a small footprint team to shoot video (including ground breaking drone footage) and stills and delivering an excellent documentary film “A New Perspective”, which won the Grand Prize at the 2013 International Festival of Mountain Film in France. Corey’s website is at www.coreyrich.com

Lightroom is the software program around which I structure all of my digital photography workflow and much of what I know about it I learned from Michael’s excellent ebook “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, A Professional Photographer’s Workflow”. The really nice thing however is that I was able to meet Michael and learn more about his work in person when he graciously hosted me at his house in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the end of a road trip in the US last year. Michael has a science background that informs his exacting approach to the world of photography and he has been working hard at the adventure photography game for a while now with clients including Red Bull and Apple.

The demand for his workshops reflect his professionalism and ability to help others learn from his vast experience but if you can’t get to a workshop I’d suggest you subscribe to his regular newsletter, as I have, from his website at www.michaelclarkphoto.com

If you like Andrew's work, check out his portfolio and galleries here...

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