The Thrill Of Adventure

After playing around with photography as a kid, he picked up his first professional camera at the age of 19. He started exploring the hills and mountains with his camera, and not much later began shooting adventure sports photography. He has shot numerous renowned climbers and adventure sportspersons. This month, we speak to adventure and landscape photographer Nadir Khan, who tells us about the thrill behind adventure photography, and how it gets his adrenaline pumping.

- Abhishek Desai

Nadir Khan’s first experience of shooting was with a little Instamatic 135 camera that he received as a present at the young age of seven. He recollects taking a picture of his sister and brother playing out in the street, but says the photo wasn’t that great. He received an old Canon FP SLR camera at the age of 19, from his father who was a keen photographer. Khan was just getting into hill walking and mountaineering at the time, so he started making images when he was in the mountains. Exploring the world of adventure and developing as a photographer happened alongside for him. He began shooting commercially around five years ago, and has achieved a lot since.

Khan first realised he wanted to be an adventure sports photographer when he saw the book ‘Mountain Light’ by Galen Rowell. He was just about to graduate from Glasgow University in 1986 as a dentist, but this book changed everything for him, and he knew he wanted to do adventure sports photography. Ansel Adam’s landscape work was also a big inspiration for him he says. More recently he has been involved in commercial work, and was really interested in how certain photographers used strobes, and he wanted to take that ‘look’ outdoors.

Khan’s photography, whether he’s shooting sports or commercial, has always involved an element of adventure and action. He says that adventure has always been a part of him. “Even as a child all I wanted to do was to climb mountains. When I was a teenager I was doing kayaking, and then trained to become a kayak white water instructor, as well as mountaineering. I realised that the way I saw things in the mountains meant I wanted to create art in the wild and remote places and photography for me was the tool with which to make that art. Also, it’s easier than carrying an easel and paint up a mountain.”