Category Finalist 2007: energy

Corey Rich

I feel like I’m the luckiest guy on earth. I get paid to play, to do exactly what I love most. I’ve had the opportunity to photograph some amazing adventures: rock climbing in Mexico, surfing in Panama, fly fishing in Mongolia, freight train hopping in the American West, ultra-marathon racing in the Sahara Desert of Morocco, and snowboarding in Papua New Guinea.

This is the kind of job you can do well only when your lifestyle and work are completely integrated; when one blends seamlessly into the other. On many assignments, I’ll be out of town for weeks at a time, with the same group of people. This puts an interesting spin on my work. I know everyone in every single frame that goes through my camera. They are people with whom I have lived, shared tents, climbed and traveled and surfed and suffered. I find this a unique privilege, not to just record a passing moment in a stranger’s life, but to document the triumphs and despairs of my closest companions. There is nothing that I would rather be doing!

Nationality: United States