ABOUT

 

Gary Crallé

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Since childhood I've felt compelled to observe and record the world around me. My grandfather passed along a talent for sketching, but I opted for a camera over conté crayons.

 

My photographic career was nurtured on small newspapers, grew into portrait, commercial, public relations and corporate work, then finally into stock photography based mainly on travel.

 

Shortly after opening my own business I received a 3-month global photo and film assignment for a non-profit aid organization. That trip revealed the best and worst of everything but also our common humanity. And sense of natural wonder.

 

In a small notebook I wrote 22 life lessons gained from that trip and returned home bitten by the travel bug. Numerous photo awards have followed.

 

I think travelling well requires 3 attributes: curiosity, appreciation and a sense of humour. The first motivates, the second gives pleasure and the third gets you through (almost) anything.

 

Travel has seen me variously receive Maya, Inca and Celtic blessings; survive earthquakes, hurricanes, riots and explosions; be taken into police custody; elude thieves; drop my pants on stage in China; dance in the Andes; back up a Beefeater at the Tower of London, and suffer the indignity of somehow being named in a press release as an air-cured Crallé ham from the Alto Adige region of Italy.  

 

As an Olympus Visionary I’ve tested equipment, produced social media content, given live presentations and contributed to the design of the company’s flagship cameras. Oly cameras were my entry into the digital world and continue to serve me well although I am no longer affiliated with either the company or its successor, OM Digital Solutions.

 

My photo mojo is simply to appreciate excellence in human achievements and beauty in the natural world — from simple elements to universal principles, from self-discovery to appreciation of ourselves and the world around us.

 

The challenge, of course, is to show the essence of a subject because it’s not what you see; it’s what you feel.

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