Daniel Fox's career trajectory is an inspirational story tailor-made for the Sea to Sky corridor.
The Vancouver photographer (by way of Quebec) was working an office job in New York City when he decided he'd had enough of an unfulfilling career. So he pulled out a map, traced his finger as far south as it would go, sold everything he owned and moved to Argentina, with a new camera in tow.
That was nearly 10 years ago now.
While he's shot stunning photographs of landscapes and wildlife around the world—as well as landing commercial work—he's set to release his first book called Feel the Wild, filled with a decade's worth of photographs.
"I worked on it for several years," Fox says. "All the right pieces came together."
The book showcases his career highlights—from wilderness sunsets to icy glaciers and wildlife.
The animal images, in particular, stand out. Fox takes a unique approach to photographing creatures in the wild.
"I literally just let it play out," he says. "All these photos with animals are encounters that have been moments in their world where I happened to be present. They accepted the camera to be there ... There's an intimacy."
In order to capture that, Fox frequently goes on solo missions into the backcountry. "If you're constantly with other people the dynamic is with those other people," he explains. "If I'm by myself, there's a certain emptiness that's only filled by what is around me. You start to interact with the environment rather than the people around you."
But that solitude of course comes with its own risks. Alongside the photos, Fox also includes his stories of adventure—and addresses topics like interacting with wildlife.
"There are always moments of stress and sometimes fear," he adds. "I wouldn't be normal if I didn't have those moments ... It's normal to react to the unknown. I know the first time I [was by] myself on a kayak and there were sea lions starting to surround me, I really started to freak out. But you learn to control the moment."
Fox will be touring the book starting with an event in Whistler at Arc'teryx on Wednesday, Oct. 9. "There's going to be a little bit of a book reading, but mostly I'll be presenting how I got to be there; the journey before the book," he says. "I talk about how I started, why I continue what I'm doing right now, and big lessons I learned from these journeys."
He'll also talk about his non-profit organization, WILD.ECO, which offers outdoor mentorship to young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. "It took me some time to figure out exactly how to connect with a younger audience in a way that made sense to me," Fox says. "I'm not a guide. I'm not someone who will spend a lot of time taking kids outside—I'm more the uncle who sends postcards and comes in with my collection of things I've acquired on the road and then I give them away. I was trying to figure out how I could bring a younger audience along with me on a journey."
The resulting mentoring program takes place over 12 months, with mentees tackling a new topic each month. "I use nature to create the framework for personal growth and transformation," he says.
The book tour, meanwhile, will wind its way through North America, culminating in his hometown of Vancouver on Dec. 12.
"Feel the Wild is really about a more holistic way [of viewing] our primal connection to the world," Fox says. "There's been a narrative in our society with a lot of guilt, and blaming. 'We're a bad species.' It hasn't been productive because a lot of people feel that it's hard enough to pay the bills and find a job and do all these things. If we look at the approach of, 'Let's look into the future and see how we can address the situation.' We're good at reassessing how we move forward. Life is a messy process. We learn by breaking things and fixing things. This is what we're going through right now."
Catch Daniel Fox on tour at Arc'teryx in Whistler on Wednesday, Oct. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. Feel the Wild will be released through Rocky Mountain Books on Oct. 29.
