The Wild is Calling: Chris Burkard
The naturalist and conservationist John Muir famously said “The mountains are calling, and I must go.” Though this quote was written nearly 150 years ago, the spirit captured lives on in today’s adventurers and wilderness lovers. The ranks of adventurers in the wild certainly include photographer Chris Burkard.
Growing up in California, Burkard was raised by a single mother for the first 12 years of his life before she married Burkard’s stepdad. Though he did not have many opportunities to do outdoor activities such as camping and mountain climbing growing up, he fell in love with the outdoors once he started exploring as a young adult. He found that the process of pursuing a shot made him feel alive to the fullest extent possible, and so endeavored to turn photography into his career to great success.
His Instagram page shows photo after photo of stunning natural landscapes, from places that host millions of visitors per year like Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada to the remotest corners of the planet like the polar regions. He has 3.2 million followers and has been named a top travel influencer by Forbes. The power of the wild that he captures so well in his photos means that it is unsurprising that his photos have been featured by a large number of prominent companies and organizations, including National Geographic Adventure, BBC, Outside magazine, Mountain Hardwear, and Microsoft.
“It’s these wild places that really make us appreciate being alive,” Burkard reflected, on his attraction to and the inspiration he gets from the great outdoors. “[T]hey speak a language that you can only understand by going there.”
As someone who travels frequently to places more remote than most of us would imagine ourselves visiting, Burkard emphasizes the importance of being prepared on such trips, while also being at peace with the fact that not everything will go as planned. “[I]t’s just a matter of how you deal with it” when things inevitably go wrong, he said.
Given the danger that one can potentially face in such an environment, Burkard says it’s all worth it to experience how “raw and powerful” these places are.
“I think people would have a different perspective on the world and the environment if they knew how powerful these remote parts of the world are,” he insisted.
Thus, Burkard’s photography mantra is to make viewers, as he puts it, “feel like they have traveled with me, like they are standing right next to me when I create these images.” Critically, he strives to make his images unique, to bring people a perspective they haven’t seen before, whether in the remote Alaskan wilderness or at Moraine Lake in the Canadian Rockies whose parking lot fills up every summer dawn. For places that are familiar to many, Burkard notes that it can take time to learn where a unique perspective lies, but this work pays off in the end.
“Experience the place and find the things you find most unique, then take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves or create opportunities to capture unique moments,” he reflected, in terms of creating good photography.
He has many tools in his pocket to create that unique shot. Fans of his Instagram page would likely notice one notable tool — aerial photography — as many of his images appear to be shot from a high vantage point.
“Being able to fly above landscapes that I have studied from the ground gives me a whole new appreciation for how various elements flow together,” he said. “It really changes how you see a place.”
Working in the photography field, one often needs a reservoir of adventurous spirit. Burkard certainly has no shortage of this and he is willing to go to great lengths to secure a shot that no one has seen before. There were many instances over the years when Burkard put himself in a risky situation for the sake of his work.
Shooting Arctic surfing from the water produced one such example. Burkard had been floating in the water shooting the other surfers and waves when it started to snow. The conditions were unforgiving, but he kept on taking photos because in his heart he knew that the photos in that particular condition must be good. He ended up having to be dragged to shore by the surfers he was shooting because he was weakened by hypothermia.
Beyond using his platform to impress upon people the vastness and wonder of the wilderness, Burkard also hopes to do his part to make a difference on some of the most important social issues of our time.
As a nature photographer, he has personally witnessed what the front lines of climate change look like.
“It’s one thing to hear about it on the news, and a completely other thing to see it in front of you or listen to the stories of locals about how their environment used to look,” he reflected.
For example, in Iceland, New Zealand, and the Patagonia region in Latin America, he has seen significant decreases in glacier size with each subsequent visit.
“Our glaciers melting isn’t a thing that ‘could’ happen in the future, it’s happening right now and pains me to see each time I revisit them,” he lamented.
Climate change is neither something that only affects remote places nor something that doesn’t affect daily life. Burkard has seen and felt the effects personally at home in California, which has recently undergone the worst drought in recorded history, been ravaged by severe wildfires, and seen warmer temperatures and less snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Burkard acknowledges that, unfortunately, the world has probably been irreversibly altered at this point in time by anthropogenic climate change. However, he emphasizes that it is not too late for us as individuals to slow the tide and prevent more severe future damage to the environment, whether by using less plastic, picking up litter, or using more environmentally-friendly transportation on one’s commute.
“I think sometimes people feel as though they need to make some major changes to make a difference, and I like to remind people that any positive behavior is a step in the right direction,” he insisted.
Burkard also acknowledges that it is difficult, if not impossible, to be the perfect environmentalist. Because his work requires a lot of air travel, he has himself struggled with the feeling that he is a contributor to climate change. To rectify this, he strives to follow a low-carbon-footprint lifestyle in other areas: he follows a vegan diet, limits his use of plastics, and maintains a compost bin and garden.
Racial equality is another area he hopes to contribute his part in. Burkard is especially passionate about diversifying the outdoors, a general term describing the movement to give BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) equal resources for and access to the outdoors.
For Burkard, the cause of increasing access to the outdoors is personal, as he has experienced what it was like to grow up in an underprivileged household that rarely engaged in outdoor recreation. Before his mother married his stepfather, Burkard had little opportunity to do outdoor sports or go camping. As a young adult, getting to explore nature was a life-changing event.
“[A] whole new world opened up to me, and photography became my vehicle to take me to all the places I wanted to see,” he reflected. “I know that access to these wild places should be a privilege afforded to all, and once we get there should be a space we all feel safe, represented, and welcome.”
Beyond using his social media platform to take part in the national conversation about racism, Burkard wanted to put money and action where his mouth is. Thus, he started a fundraiser gallery supporting NAACP and Outdoor Outreach, an organization that supports BIPOC youth who want to explore nature. As of July 14, this fundraiser has raised over $20,000.
Besides fundraising, he hopes to create programs to teach what he knows about photography to aspiring black photographers, as knowledge is the most empowering tool an upcoming artist could have. On a more personal level, he is making efforts to educate himself and listen to the people of his community on these issues so that he can be part of the solution.
Some may regard Burkard’s line of work as cut out for an adrenaline junkie who is only content in traveling to faraway lands and doing things most would never dream of doing. But Burkard says that for him, adventure doesn’t necessarily mean putting himself in extreme conditions, or even traveling internationally. Instead, he says that the most memorable adventures for him are the ones that he shares with his loved ones, whether they involve a few hours’ drive from home or an international flight.
“For me, sometimes it’s the simple trips up the coast, just a few hours from home that can be the most powerful,” Burkard said.
