OG Mountain Lifer Colin Field hosts this episode of Live it Up and connects with Kari Medig, a photographer and adventurer whose images of skiing, mountain biking and exploring have graced the pages of outdoor magazines around the globe, including Mountain Life.
As Field points out, Medig is not a “normal” ski photographer. I.e., he’s not exclusively shooting guys hucking off cliffs. “Growing up in Fernie and skiing from a young age,” Medig explains, “I found that ski culture really wasn’t covered that much. So there was a space to photograph everything going on at the fringes of the ski world.”
Medig, who was born in Ontario but grew up in Fernie, B.C., talks about starting his career with an internship at a newspaper, which showed him how to move and shoot quickly—and to look for the stories behind the photos.
Known for capturing the ski culture in the least likely of places, his images of skiers in India, Israel and the UK have produced some of his most memorable work. He captures portraits of jean-clad skiers on the slopes of Africa that get you more stoked to go skiing than an epic, waist-deep image you’ve seen a thousand times.
“In Canada we have the best skiing in the world,” says Medig. “As a skier, I’m very interested in that. But as a photographer, I’m more interested in these smaller ski diasporas where skiing has taken on its own role and people are discovering it…. The snow quality is secondary. My happy place is what would be considered some piddly hill in Bulgaria because there is such endless fodder for the type of imagery I’m interested in.”
Check out his work at karimedigphoto.com
