greenland
A
s a rule, photographers are a restless
bunch. No one hands them high-
profile ad campaigns or magazine covers for just laying low and chilling. Their 3 million Instagram fans don't follow them for the clever captions. They want to go where they go, see what they see.
In 2017, photographer Chris Burkard (and his 2.9 million Instagram followers) saw plenty. He traveled to more countries than he can reliably recall—Greenland, Argentina, India, Iceland, Chile, Canada. “Twenty-five to thirty” is his best guess. And he put close to 100,000 miles on his customized Mercedes Sprinter van.
He and his crew did two coastal road trips to promote his surf documentary and book Under an Arctic Sky—San Diego to Vancouver, and Miami to Boston, a long stretch of I-95 that reminded the native Californian of an old Western-biased joke. 'If the Pilgrims had landed in San Francisco," he says, "the East coast would still be wilderness."
They also logged a succession of meandering treks around the American West, and somehow got themselves from Greenland to India and Iceland to Chile, two 26-day trips that tested their endurance, their bureauratic patience, and their intestinal fortitude. “Every time I go to India I get sick," he says. "It’s a part of the process. You have to give a little of yourself to these places.” Here are a handful of places Burkard gave himself to, and a taste of what he saw there.
India. Patagonia. Iceland. Again? A epic year in the life of an adventure photographer at the top his game.
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The world
"Greenland left a deep impression. It was mind-blowing, one of the best trips of my life. You’re just immersed in desolation—days from any help or support—and that’s what makes it unique. That forces you to really consider the landscape and to think about where you are. You can’t leave without an understanding of where you’ve been and who’s been there before you. Any place that has a harsher climate is going to ask more of you, so it will force a more intimate connection."
Greenland
"I have a real soft spot for India's surf scene. I’d been wanting to surf this one wave for more than four years and this year we finally got to ride it. It always sounded a little too good to be true, as most remote waves do. It's not your typical 'see a swell and book a ticket' scenario. It felt more like a 'hope and pray' type of deal. The swell window is tiny and it coincides with an erratic ferry season that often gets canceled at a moment's notice. Just getting a visa and permits took months, and then getting there is a total pain. Sometimes remoteness yields the greatest rewards, but it can also lead to bigger disappointments."
Kochi,india
"We did some long, long road trips this year. Twenty-hour drives. We did a number of them to New Mexico for a tourism job and another for National Parks but for some reason we kept going back to Utah over and over and over again. It became a running joke. It’s one of my favorite places and I’m never bummed when I have to go there. But we ended up there a lot."
new mexico
& Utah
“I have always had a healthy fear of glaciers, but in Patagonia I got to experience a bit more of their power than I wanted to. After a long mission of driving, taking a river boat, hiking, and finally kayaking, we reached a pristine glacier far from any roads. I was on the shore prepping my kayak, when I heard a large crack. Then I watched as the largest chunk of ice I have ever seen fell off the face of the glacier and into the water. I didn’t think much of it but the lake started to swell and all the sudden real waves started to form and crash on the slippery granite. I was in the worst spot possible while trying to retrieve the kayak and I nearly went down with the ship. I slipped and almost fell into the icy water. I feel pretty lucky that we managed to get away unscathed with just a bruised ego.”
Aysén Region,
chile
"The solar eclipse kind of planned itself because you had to go in the line of totality. I'd never seen an eclipse so I didn't really know what to expect. We were just totally winging the whole thing. I thought it was going to be beautiful no matter where you were, but it ended up being so much more unique to see it completely covered. The ability to sit there and stare at the sun without any goggles was amazing. The desert in Oregon gets tons of sunny days in August and Smith Rock was just a micro-second outside of the totality. We thought it would be cool to shoot someone high-lining there. And it turned out great."
oregon
"The East Coast leg was a total nightmare. We were on film tour, just driving up the coast to promote the movie. In this line of work, there are a remarkable number of hours and miles you cover that are undocumented and unremembered. It’s part of the job. This was the worst stretch of road, but it was a learning opportunity, mainly in appreciating what we have here in the West. When we were driving up the East Coast that old joke dawned on me again. If the Indians had landed in San Francisco the East Coast would still be wilderness."
west coast road trip
"Other than Mars, north Iceland has the largest concentration of fully formed pseudo craters and volcanic craters we know of. These rootless vents are a marvel to behold. Hverfjall is one of the largest explosion craters in the world. Walking along its rim feels like being on another planet."
Hverfjall, Iceland
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