Winter, Lodgepole Pine, Banff National Park

Craig Richards was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1955. In 1980 he moved to Canmore, Alberta, the gateway to the Canadian Rockies and continues to call these mountains home. For 30 years Richards has used a 4×5 camera combined with the traditional silver gelatin printing process. His interests as artist, avid hiker, photographer, and mountain culture aficionado have coalesced to form an engaging body of work. His photographs have been the subject of over 40 solo exhibitions, and another 45 group exhibitions at public and commercial galleries as well as museums throughout the world. Photography is woven into all aspects of his life. Craig Richards has been a guest instructor teaching photographic workshops in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Europe and Africa. He has given lectures and presentations of his photographs around the world. Richards is currently Curator of Photography at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta. Since 1995 he has worked on numerous projects for the Museo Nazionale Della Montagna, Torino, Italy. These photographic projects include Canada (Rocky Mountains and Yukon), Guatemala, Italy (Valle di Susa), Uganda (Rwezori), USA (Alaska) and the Chezch Republic (Teplice nad Metuji).

This photograph is printed using a black and white process in which the negative is laid over the gel emulsion of silver nitrate which reacts to UV light and produces an image. The picture is of the snow covered forest in Alberta. It belongs to the genre of nature photography that has its roots in the Victorian era fine art photography meant to capture the artist’s personal impression. In Richards’ own words: “I love the violence of storms as well as the delicacy and the calm. All of this is prevalent in my photographs as well as my excitement, my awe, and my interpretation. I’m not trying to document where I have been but show what I feel about this landscape. This dramatic and textural mountain-scape is not just a mass of inanimate objects, it is alive, with personalities that change continuously with each minute, hour, day and season.” Nature photography often becomes important in raising awareness of environmental causes. “The mountains pose a universal paradox, an ever-present reminder of nature’s power and its fragility,” says Richards. Photographs can be used to help grow political support for areas that need protection such as the Canadian National Parks.