Pond Inlet, Baffin Island

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Canada | Monday, June 10, 2013 | 5 photos

My photography has always had two centres: one on people. the other on landscape. My favourite subject in school was always geography. This comes together as a focus on people in their landscape.

This landscape is sometimes natural but oftentimes not. It is more likely urban or industrial, sometimes rural. In the far north one finds people living in a natural landscape, harsh and forbidding but also profoundly beautiful. I have been fortunate to travel in northern parts of Canada, Norway, Scotland and Japan to experience people living close to nature, although usually not close 'with' nature.

As a teenager growing up in London, keenly interested in photography, I nonetheless decided I did not want to depend on photography for a living. So I pursued a career in forestry in Montana instead. Now, having retired early enough to pursue my passion, my photography is still focused on people in difficult environments.

I want to win this competition because I believe my photography can help foster a sense of understanding of life in extreme environments. And I want to bring this to a wider audience. This is especially important given such horrendous denial of global climate change.