Cultures at Risk Presenter Biographies
John Beatty
On the traditional seabird harvest in the Outer Hebrides, and the impact of modern values on this practice
“Once a year, in the utmost secrecy, ten chosen men from the Isle of Lewis spend two weeks on a remote rock in the Atlantic where they harvest 2000 gannets as part of a legacy that has existed for over four centuries.
“John Beatty, a highly-acclaimed English wilderness photographer, is one of the very few outsiders in living memory to have been allowed on the island of Sula Sgeir to witness the catching, plucking and salting of the birds prior to their being shipped back to Lewis. He lived with the men, sleeping in a century old bee-hive dwelling, eating food cooked on peat fires, and listening to daily readings from the Gaelic bible.
“This is an extraordinary story rooted in age-old tradition and infused with hardship, mystery and ritual.”
Since his outstanding audio-visual debut in 1984 with the slow-dissolve choreography of “Touch the Earth: A Celebration of Wild Places,” John Beatty has been widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and stimulating nature, travel and adventure photographers to have emerged in recent years.
John’s work is chiefly concerned with the timeless rhythms of the natural environment, its beauty and simplicity, and man’s place within it. Now in his twenty first year of business, he has travelled throughout the world. Major expeditions include seven months spent in Antarctica, a winter in Spitzbergen, and a 400 mile traverse of the Greenland Icecap.
He has been to the Himalayas, the Pacific Islands, East Africa, the American deserts, the Galapagos Islands, and the Andes, Namibia, Alaska, the European Alps, and has photographed almost all the wildland locations in Britain from the windswept tors of Cornwall to white strands of the Outer Hebrides. His work has appeared in all the major outdoor magazines in the Britain, and features by him have been published across the world in European, Japanese, and American periodicals. Articles about him have appeared in the major photographic magazines in the UK. John has produced six books on outdoor and adventure subjects which include The Pure Land: A Celebration of Wild Places (Thames and Hudson) and Sula: The Seabird Hunters of Lewis (Michael Joseph). In 1987, 12 of John’s pictures were exhibited by the British Council in the Royal Festival Hall, London.
Corporate commissioned photography clients include Adidas, Boots, Toyota, Midlands Power, BBC Television, and North West Water Authority, and in the outdoor design and manufacturing sector Karrimor, Helly Hansen, Berghaus, Lowe Alpine, Rohan, and Field & Trek plc. John specializes in nature, landscape, travel, and high-end lifestyle, on water, ATB, snow, and mountain action.
John works closely with his London agent, Getty Images, to whom he supplies photographs for worldwide corporate advertising and features.
In the non-print media and world of audio-visual communications John has produced three programs for public presentations: “Touch the Earth”, which toured the UK and USA, “The Pure Land,” and “Earthborn.” John’s new presentation “Wild: A Dialogue of Elements,” is currently touring in the UK. His commercial programs include “Wilderness and Water,” for North West Water Authority, “Partnership,” for Karrimor International, “Teaming up with Karrimor,” for Karrimor International, “A Living Landscape,” for the Peak District National Park Planning Board’s 40th Anniversary.
Every year John designs and publishes a 52-image desk-diary of natural world subjects for the John Muir Trust. He lives in the Derbyshire Peak District with his wife and two teenage children.