Photography – Andrew Terrill

Andrew Terrill

The outdoor diary of a writer, photographer, and wilderness wanderer

Photogaphy

There are few things more human than telling stories. It’s an essential part of who we are; it’s a key part of how we became what we are: the intelligent, adaptive, social creatures capable of surviving the many trials of existence. Story telling, sharing experiences, interpreting them, learning from them, adapting to them, growing from them – these little tricks gave us sneaky advantages over our ‘competitors’. Imagine the trouble we’d have been in if saber tooth tigers could have shared experiences and strategized the way we did!

Stories, of course, aren’t only told through words but through pictures too. Telling picture stories is something we’ve been doing for a hell of a long time. The oldest cave paintings so far discovered were made an estimated 2,500 generations ago, give or take a great-great-great grandparent or two. Being a photographer is to continue this most basic of human traditions.

What I seek to do with my photographs is tell the story of a moment in nature, not merely what it looked like but more critically how it felt. (This is a key part of why I head into the wild; not to see but to feel, with all the senses, sixth, seventh, and eighth included!) Perhaps attempting to replicate the depths of an experience through a simple two-dimensional image is a fool’s errand, but the storytelling human that I am feels an irrepressible urge to try. It’s an instinct, a genetic imperative – I can’t help it, can’t fight it! Whether or not I succeed and tell anything worth telling isn’t down to me to say.

I’ve owned a camera since I was small, and goodness knows how many tens of thousands of photographs I’ve taken since then. (Far too many, some may suggest!) I took 7,000 slides during my 7,000-mile walk across Europe – not an excessive number in the scheme of things, but enough to capture the essence of the journey. My photos have illustrated magazine features, have been sold by photo libraries, have been exhibited, and sit upon private walls owned by people I’ll likely never meet or know. I began ‘writing’ photo-stories just for myself; it was a happy accident to discover these stories appealed to others as well.

A selection of my photos can be seen on Fine Art America (and purchased from that site, although browsing only is quite okay!) There are more on Facebook, there’ll be a bunch appearing on this blog, and an uncounted number still sit in boxes, thousands upon thousands of slide stories from places far and wide waiting to be scanned and told. I’ll get to them, one day, perhaps.

In the meantime, if you see a photograph that talks to you personally- please let me know. I love discussing ‘stories’, love how the same story can mean different things to different people. And if you see a photograph you might like a print of please ask – I’m sure we can arrange it. After all, stories only have value when shared!

Other than that, all I can say is: enjoy. Oh, and also: thank you for taking a look!