Environmental Statement

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” - Thoreau

The most important goal of any ethical nature photographer, or any human visiting the wild, should be the consistent practice of sound environmental stewardship.

While I can’t claim to be perfect in this department, I always try my best to leave places better than how I found them. I believe I achieve this in many ways, such as packing out litter, reporting vandalism, and avoiding taking the same route each time I venture off trail. After all, everything is connected. To help, or harm, one thing in nature creates ripples of positive or negative consequences that may actually be invisible to humans, at first.

I enjoy learning how I can be a better human when I hike and camp - kind of like my overall approach to photography and life in general. I very much consider myself a student of the earth and, by extension, environmentalism. In the spirit of learning, I try to keep an open mind so I may absorb new-to-me ways of supporting the places I love. Often, this involves “unlearning” how I go about my time in the woods thanks to updated environmental research that has come to my attention.

The more I learn, and the more I photograph nature, the more I appreciate its quieter, unsung beauty that easily goes unnoticed. While important and useful for my art-making, my camera is secondary to my appreciation of (and care for) the natural spaces I both cherish and call home. Before I venture out, I often remind myself of seven simple, easy-to-remember principles…