Blue Mountains Artists Connection: Member Profile

Ian Brown

Kanangra

Ian Brown is a wilderness and nature photographer who has been walking wild country for 40 years. As a bushwalker, climber, naturalist and former national park ranger, his images are informed by a spiritual connection to nature and a deep interest in natural processes.
“I seek out compositions and conditions of light that speak of the power and beauty of landscapes and ecologies, and then try to capture them with as much truth as I can. Integrity is crucial to my purpose of honouring nature.”
Ian uses digital equipment at times, but prefers to work with a view camera and large format film for complete control of the image. This is a venerable photographic tradition which demands commitment and total concentration, in tune with a slow and contemplative immersion in ‘nature’s time’. Nature can be bewildering, so compositions are carefully chosen.
To find his images Ian walks the bush, usually alone, often for many days at a time, carrying up to 25 kg. The wilder the better. Much of his photography is of the Blue Mountains, where he has lived for 25 years. He also enjoys exploring and photographing in the wilds of Tasmania, Cape York Peninsula, the NSW coast, the mountains of central Australia, Fiordland and any place where nature speaks most clearly.
For many years Ian’s photographs have appeared in wilderness diaries and calendars and numerous exhibitions. His Blue Mountains images were illustrated the official nomination for the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and are presented in the book Wild Blue: World Heritage Splendour of the Greater Blue Mountains and in the annual Wild Blue Mountains Calendar. He is represented by Papyrus Gallery in Leura.

Clifflight and cascade

Rain pools, Grose Valley

Mountain Blue Gum

Mountain Ash and mist