Pro in focus
The adventure photographer has a new book out called The Oceans. Niall Hampton discovers the stories behind the images and the author’s relationship with the sea
With an appetite for adventure, a can-do attitude and a ‘have camera, will travel’ philosophy, Chris Burkard is as much a force of nature as the subjects he documents. One of the world’s leading adventure photographers, Burkard has been taking his viewers into far-flung and inaccessible parts of the world for a decade and a half, raising awareness of the state of the planet and the effects of climate change. His main focus, though, is his first love – the sea. Whether on assignment shooting surfing and extreme outdoor sports for global brands or capturing images for his own portfolio, Burkard has a reputation for going the extra mile in every sense, braving uncompromising conditions for periods of time that would leave others in his wake.
With his latest book The Oceans: The Maritime Photography of Chris Burkard having been published at the end of last year, it felt like an appropriate time to ask the man himself about the story behind the book, and how it compares to his previous one, Wayward: Stories and Photographs, published in 2021, which he discussed in issue 249 of Digital Camera.
“The biggest difference is that Wayward was a bit more of a memoir, more of a story about my specific experience as a photographer and as a creative,” Burkard explains over the phone from New York City. “The Oceans is more of a love letter to this landscape, to oceans. And as somebody who grew up by the sea, at the beach, being by the ocean was more about circumstance than it was about anything else. It wasn’t so much that I would always seek it out, it was always there – at times, it was a babysitter and it was a friend. It was a place where I had a lot of joy and a place where I found a lot of solace during challenging times of my life.
“And this book was, in many ways, a love letter to that experience, something that I aspired to create for a long time. I’m aw
