Krystle Wright photographs a climber making an ascent from above.
© Krystle Wright
Exploration

Adventure photographer Krystle Wright opens up about her nomadic lifestyle

Take a peek inside the brain of world-famous adventure photographer Krystle Wright in our interview and video.
Written by Marv Watson
3 min readPublished on
When world-renowned adventure photographer Krystle Wright contacted Red Bull's Los Angeles office, asking to meet up, we couldn't let an opportunity like this pass us by. We put our heads together and came up with a bunch of questions about her nomadic lifestyle.
Watch the video below for an insider's look into the world of adventure photography and scroll on down to see some of Wright's photography work. Then read an honest Q&A, where Wright opens up about an ice climbing photo failure. Would you survive in minus 30?

13 min

Krystle Wright interview

In a fun interview, Krystle Wright opens up about her nomadic lifestyle, how she is constantly asked about her position in such a male-dominated field her thoughts on social media and more.

Do you still think photography is relevant?
People feared that photography would disappear for good. I think more than ever photography is still relevant. It isn’t going anywhere. It’s a totally different arena when you compare still photography to a moving image. You can never compare the two together. There's something about that singular split second motion that can absolutely change the world.
What would you say is your speciality?
I'm definitely a versatile shooter. When I first began, I definitely had a dream of being a surf photographer. I remember meeting Andrew Shield – one of my heroes in the industry – and we were chatting and he said to me, “If you have too much of a good thing, suddenly it isn’t as joyous as it once was.” Each year is totally different.
Have you ever failed on assignment?
I became very ambitious a few years ago to do an ice climbing project up in British Columbia. I had this idea of lighting it up a different way. Where we went was very remote. It was a good two-hour hike just to get there. We had a tent and a Walmart heater to heat up everything because it was minus 30. Mother Nature had her humour. For the shoot that I had worked so hard for, to get funding, to get people’s trust – and the problem is when something is such an uphill battle – sometimes I have to let that go and reset and come at it in a different way because when I force it, it just never flows the right way.
It was minus 30, the ice was super brittle, everything was snapping off and I wasn’t allowed to get up on the ropes, so I had to rely on the athletes and me screaming at them from below to put the flashes in the right position. And we sent the drone up somehow because we warmed it up in the tent. And the shots came back blurry. But I want to go back. When you fail, so what? I want to go back and I know now how to fix that and make a great image out of it.
For more incredible photography and travel stories, follow Wright on Instagram. If you think your photos are equal to or better than Wright's why not enter them into the 2019 Red Bull Illume image quest photography contest. Find out more details on how to enter by clicking on the related story below: