Wild Vision: In Celebration of the Natural World

Thirty years ago a young man sailed by way of the Falkland Islands to Antarctica, where he was to work as a field assistant on the British Antarctic Survey. This adventure, lasting seven months, shaped the course of John Beatty’s life. Over the three decades that followed, John travelled extensively, encountering the natural rhythms and raw beauty of the world in its most remote and spectacular settings. He took with him an innate photographic skill by means of which, through countless rigorous and self-reliant experiences in the wild, he developed an intensely personal and unique vision, the expression of which is distilled in the images contained in this book. Behind the camera’s shutter, an artist’s eye was at work, seizing on opportunity and shaping it for our appreciation. Wild Vision is the first retrospective of John’s work. To accompany his breathtaking photographs, he has written a text that gives insights into the adventurous experiences that are at the heart of his photography. Together, word and image take you on a journey both graphic and spiritual, where place resonates in all its dimensions: from kayaking down the Colorado River to trekking through the Himalaya; from polar and Greenland ice-caps into the incredible animal kingdoms of Africa; from Boreal forests to landscapes that inspired the life’s work of Charles Darwin. This thrilling journey through awareness ends with our own relict and staggeringly beautiful wild land of Britain. To follow it is to learn to see.