Camilla Stoddart interview
HUCK catches up with the only female photographer to make it into the top 50 finalists for the Red Bull Illume Image Quest competition.
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When photographer Margaret Bourke-White ventured to the Soviet Union in 1941, she proved that gender means nothing when you’re stood behind the lens. As the first female war correspondent, Margaret showed that women could hold their own deep inside the danger zone.
But the battles she had to fight are still being fought today. Just ask Camilla Stoddart – the only woman to make the final fifty in this year’s Red Bull Illume Image Quest. The adrenaline-fuelled world of so-called ‘adventure sports’ photography has always been incredibly male dominated, but even Camilla was surprised by her solo status. “I’m aware that there are far fewer female adventure sports photographers out there, but I really thought there would be a few in the finals,” reflects the Scot.
Having cut her teeth shooting skiers and snowboarders deep in the backcountry, Camilla understands how physically demanding her chosen career path really is: “A lot of the time you have to be close to the athlete, often in exposed places and amongst the elements. You have to carry a lot of heavy camera gear and it can be demanding on your body, not to mention getting into scary places sometimes.” But she refuses to adhere to the notion that women are somehow less equipped to tackle extreme terrain.
Camilla had to climb, bush-bash and wade through glacial rivers in the Matukituki Valley in New Zealand’s Mount Aspiring National Park to get her awe-inspiring shot of BASE jumper Josie Symons “suspended elegantly in the air, captured in a moment in time when she becomes part of the landscape.” The result is an image that cuts through gender stereotypes imposed on both photographer and athlete alike:
“Josie told me that usually people think that she has just gone along to watch her boyfriend Dan jump. They are surprised when she jumps too, surprised and mightily impressed. There is no prejudice, just assumptions… At the party after the [Illume] awards, it was funny chatting to the other photographers who all assumed I was a judge, or a guest, and when they realised there was a girl in the finals they were quite surprised, and gave me a lot of respect.”
The determination and passion exuded by Camilla is ultimately her meal ticket. It’s blindingly apparent that she loves her job and that she will continue to push herself until her body says no. Her current plans include learning to climb to better photograph BASE jumpers, spending more time in the waves and mastering free diving. For Camilla, gender is irrelevant: she can keep up with the boys, get great shots and believes other women should be encouraged to do the same.
“It is often a split second in time, but wonderful things happen when humans and mountains meet,” she says. “If you want it bad enough you will get there, it wont be easy and there are no short cuts, but you will have the time of your life getting there. Let the highs outweigh the lows, saddle up and get ready for the ride!”
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Camilla Stoddart interview (text) by Liz Seabrook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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