Chris Burkard: Crusade Against the Mundane
As Seen in CREATIV Magazine — Volume 2 | Issue 7
When Chris Burkard thinks of his childhood, he thinks of the beach. Having grown up on California’s Central Coast, he feels the beach raised him. The sand and sea sculpted him into a man of the natural world. “We spent all day there, sunrise to sunset,” he remembers. “I guess for some families it’s a huge outing, but because we lived near the coast, the sand was like a second home. That really shaped me — the idea of adventures and micro-adventures so close to home. It helped me to realize you don’t have to go far from home to have a connection with the outdoors.”
The Adventure
Raised by the ocean’s swell, it was only natural for Burkard to become a surfer. When his love of wave riding collided with his passion for taking pictures, he fell into a career in surf photography. But after exhausting the warm, tropical surf locations of the world, he wanted more. “I began craving wild open spaces,” he says. “So, I set out to find the places people had written off as too cold, too remote, too dangerous to surf.” It became a trying experience just getting to these locations, let alone surviving the conditions upon arrival. But that made it all the more rewarding. Praising the ascetic, Burkard says, “If shivering is a form of meditation, then I consider myself a monk.”
The Surf
In what he describes as his coldest experience, Burkard was in Norway, where the water hovered above freezing temperature, and the air at about 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
“After about 30 minutes I couldn’t feel my hands or feet. But the surf was too good to [leave]. I kept shooting until I physically could not move; I was so disoriented, I didn’t know if the waves were pushing me out to sea or pulling me into the jagged shore. It took three surfers to pull me out of the water… to this day it makes my head feel numb and my fingers tremble.”
The Cold
Even beyond the biting cold, Burkard’s life of adventure has not been without hardship. In what he considers his darkest moment, he contracted a staph infection in Tahiti. “I spent two months in bed lying on my back and squeezing pus out of my wound. It was miserable.” But it wasn’t the pain that made it so challenging. “Some people might say I am spastic or ADD,” he admits, “so, being forced to stay in bed was just as horrible on my mind as on my body. There was a point where red lines were running up my leg, and I thought I might lose it.”
The Light
Coming from darkness, the light is that much brighter. Burkard seems to illustrate the most beautiful moments in his photographs, proving that sometimes, one instant in time is pure magic. Ironically, he notes, “I usually have no idea in the moment when I have gotten a shot worth capturing. So, it’s always kind of crazy to look back at the image.” Though Burkard has received major accolades for his photography, has published five books of his work, and has shot for such respected commercial brands as American Airlines, Apple, Volkswagen, and Volcom, he maintains, “All my best images have been that way. When standing on a stage for an award, I am always really humbled.”
The Bliss
Burkard finds bliss and strength in the adversity he faces. In the harsh wild, “every photo I was forced to earn,” he notes.
“All the shivering taught me something: in life, there are no shortcuts to joy. Anything worth pursuing requires us to suffer just a tiny bit.”
After revealing this theory in his TED Talk this year, the quote was released online without context, stirring up quite a controversy. With pride, Burkard notes, “Nothing important that was ever said wasn’t debated over. I love that it is polarizing people.” He views the dissent as “very telling of the type of people in the world today: people who feel entitled to things — even things like joy — and feel like they don’t have to work for them or suffer for them.” Looking back on his words and the effect they have had on his followers, Burkard remarks, “If there is any new revelation, it would be that I am grateful to have an opinion — to have felt things and seen things so deeply that they have enabled me to take a stance on something.”
The Inspiration
Burkard continues traveling to the ends of the world, today shooting for Surfer Magazine as senior staff photographer. Never one to get comfortable, he is even developing his first children’s book, motivated by his two young sons. “I’m always trying to keep my life focused on inspiration, without putting myself in a box,” he explains. His greatest aspirations in life, he says, are to “be a good father and continue to inspire people to seek out wild places — places where their hearts can roam free.”
