They're an unusual bunch. They live a semi-nomadic life of equal parts adventure and tech geekdom, with a large dose of unpredictability thrown in. They keep unsociable hours and stare at screens far more often than anyone really realises. But photographers, as weird and unruly as they may sometimes seem, are among my best friends. All of the photographers I've ever had the opportunity to work beside have inspired me in some way.
From the cutting room floor of New Zealand Surfing Magazine (Chris Berge and Craig Levers) to the hillside of an Italian mountain bike race (Ale di Lullo), to the frenzied media room of an All Blacks game (Andrew Cornaga), I have met some amazing people, in various stages of their career, and forged lifelong friendships. One of my favourite stories is when I met Piero Batini. I tracked him down to shoot a Dakar race for a magazine we were working on. He covered the event and the images were spectacular. When it came time to buy them from him he asked not for payment, but for "a pair of Australian Blundestone boots for the desert". And so every Dakar at the start of each year, in return for some amazing images we sent a pair of size 9 Blundestone boots to Piero in Europe.
I learn something new from all photographers whenever I spend time with them and I have fun doing it. Some are so relaxed you think you may have found the happiest person around and some are so uptight their every move is like a dance across eggshells. But at the heart of all of them is a desire to make their great pictures even better than the day before - to constantly move forward and evolve. Some have cracked the business model and make a lot of money. Others barely get out of debt no matter how mind-blowingly creative and polished their work is.
All of them are tormented by their craft.
Being a photographer is seldom a road to financial riches, but it is most certainly a priviledge to live a life enriched with the type of experiences most only see in photographs.
See you on the ice flow ... Derek
PS If the story above is about my photographer friends then I'm locked in a valley shooting frozen waterfalls. Yep, that's how life should be ... see you next week from one of the happiest guys on earth.
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