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Ian Gaston
I am a nature photographer specializing in small scenes that capture the diversity of California. I am also addicted to the outdoors and am an avid backpacker. I hope that people look at my work and ask questions about the mystery and wonder of our natural world.
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
Ian Gaston values closeness to nature, whether at home in California’s Santa Cruz mountains or while travelling. He chooses backpacking and camping to immerse himself fully. His portfolios of rock and wood in particular demonstrate a desire to consider each subject in intimate detail. It’s a world away from previous lives in the music industry and overseas, but one that provides him with sustenance and ongoing inspiration.
Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself - where you grew up, what your early interests were, and what you went on to do?
I currently reside in a small rural town in the Santa Cruz Mountains with my wife and our two rescue animals. I was born and raised in the Bay Area and, throughout my youth, was very active in sports. This came to a dramatic halt in junior high after I suffered a serious neck dislocation during a soccer scrimmage. Starting high school in a large neck brace, at an all-boys Catholic school, as an extremely introverted teen, was not ideal to say the least. I was constantly bullied both emotionally and physically, and became very withdrawn. I remember losing interest in any kind of team-based sport. Time alone led me to think more introspectively. I soon felt drawn to music and decided to learn to play the guitar. I was fortunate to have very supportive parents who nurtured my shift in focus, and from there started taking lessons. Playing music eventually turned into writing my own songs, which was extremely therapeutic and helped me get through this tough period in my life. Once my neck healed, I still had the desire to be physically active. Having closed the chapter on team sports, I decided to have a go at surfing. Sitting out in the ocean, waiting for sets, you have a lot of time to think. Thoughts about yourself, nature, and how you connect to it. I would say surfing was the primary catalyst for bringing me closer to nature.
When did you develop your enthusiasm for photography? Did you have an interest in, or exposure to, the arts before your travels led you to pick up a camera?
Before I caught the photography bug, I lived in Burbank, CA, and had a career in music as a songwriter/producer. Although I still love to play guitar and write songs, that lifestyle ultimately was not for me. Through a relationship, I wound up moving to Sri Lanka and lived there for five years.
You’ve talked about reaching a plateau with wildlife photography, and that leading you on to landscapes. Did that occur before you returned to America, and what nudged you into making the transition?
Shooting wildlife quickly taught me all the technicalities involved in operating a camera. And while I consider myself a reasonably patient person, being a wildlife photographer requires an almost superhuman level of patience. Spending hours or days hunkered down in horrible weather for shots that rarely pan out, I have a lot of respect for wildlife photographers. It’s tough, and there’s a lot of disappointment. I shifted more towards landscape photography when I moved back to the States. At that time, there was a lot of change in my life. I started hiking more, and I got into backpacking. I took my camera with me on almost every trip into the backcountry. It’s hard to say exactly why I made the transition away from wildlife; I just remember being moved beyond words every time I was in nature and wanted to capture and share the beauty I was witnessing.