Adventurous Careers in Photography

Some of the best photos ever taken were shot by photographers having what most people would consider adventurous careers. This could mean they were on expedition in the jungle, on the streets during a revolution, traveling to the South Pole or finding the grit and humanity in the slums of a city. The passion of the photographer tends to lead him in an adventurous direction.

Types

Ansel Adams, one of the best known photographers in the world, made a career out of photographing one of the most photogenic places in the world: Yosemite National Park in California. When he went in the early part of the 20th century, Yosemite still was nearly a wilderness and he saw beauty there that changed his life. It's hard not to take good photos in Yosemite, but Adams found a way to be adventurous and get extraordinary shots. He climbed mountains to precarious perches, stared down terrible weather and went everywhere before there were guardrails on the high paths.

History

Jacob A. Riis, in the late 1880s, took his cumbersome photographic equipment, with new, more sensitive film and a bright flash, into the deepest recesses of the slums and tenements of New York City. Here he photographed the degradation and human misery of the poorest of the poor. He burrowed into the dark corners and photographed murderers, starving children, abused women, crowded flop houses and more. He published these in a book called "How the Other Half Lives" in 1890 and caused a revolution in the thinking of Americans. It was this book that got future president Theodore Roosevelt into the Progressive movement to help alleviate suffering among the poor. This contributed, a few decades later, to the New Deal, housing reform and other social support systems.

Geography

Nigel Dennis moved to Africa from England in 1985 and began working to photograph the indigenous wildlife. His stunning photos are only possible because he and his wife camp in the wilds for extensive periods each year, essentially living with the often dangerous animals.

Considerations

While not trained specifically as photographers, the NASA astronauts nonetheless have taken extraordinary photos in the harshest of adventurous realms: space. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders, for example, became the first human beings to see the earth rise over the surface of the moon near Christmas in 1968. They photographed the scene and made history. There are many other stunning shots taken by the astronauts using Hasselblad cameras and Carl Zeiss lenses.

Significance

In the streets of St. Petersburg in 1917 or Prague 1968, photographers told the story of revolution happening before their eyes. The photographers on the streets "with or without assignments to be there" showed the world what was happening. They captured the pain, the power and the horror of life in terrible circumstances.

Benefits

It takes a different kind of person to leave the safety of the studio walls to venture into dangerous, unpredictable places to show the truth through the lens. These kinds of people can have extraordinarily adventurous photographic careers.