Photographer, entrepreneur, and adventure seeker Chris Chase recently spoke to The Network Group about photography in adventure tourism. He spoke candidly about what led him into this world and what it means to him.
Chase moved to New Zealand from New York City to pursue and grow his skills as a teacher; he was attracted to the lifestyle and teaching style in New Zealand and believed that he could learn a lot and then take that back home to NYC.
Soon enough, Chase found himself falling in love with the adventure lifestyle that we all know and love here in New Zealand. He became a self-proclaimed “teacher by week and adventurer by weekend”.
Whilst exploring our beautiful nation with strangers who became friends, Chase unknowingly began his three-way love affair with the camera, the scenery of New Zealand and the people enjoying it. It has been a journey that started with just picking up his camera to capture the memories and scenery for his family and friends back home to now sharing New Zealand with the rest of the world.
The way that Chase speaks about adventure photography is beautiful, it’s human, and it’s from a perspective that should be explored a lot more. It’s all about the people experiencing the environment/activity in the images.
“People love to see photos of themselves in cool places, and people love to see pictures of other people in incredible places too.
“Seeing an image of someone experiencing the slopes on Mt Ruapehu, a beautiful and famous ski field here in New Zealand, is much more relatable than seeing a wide shot of the mountains themselves.
“You want to see the smiles of the people enjoying the snow, the hights and the slopes. You can relate to that; it transports you and helps you imagine yourself there. It’s that whole idea that ‘it could be you’.”
Chase says it’s a tantalising thing that you and your family can be like the people in the photos; white water rafting, feeling the splash of the water and laughing through it.
Chase is driving the idea that adventure tourism is attainable and relatable. The scenery itself is not so relatable.
Chris Chase Photography is stepping into its lane with marketing adventure tourism and helping companies become more relatable and human with their approach.
In a world where authenticity and humanity are so needed, Chase hits the nail on the head in this heavily curated society.
TNG offers members the opportunity to present to the wider TNG Community on it’s online forum.
Register to visit our next meeting on Friday 11 March at 10.30 at https://www.tng.org.nz/events/online-connect-nz-online/?occurrence=2022-03-11