Ladies we Love: Photog Camilla Stoddart

November 9th, 2013 • BY Megan Michelson

Camilla Stoddart is a Scottish-born outdoor and action sports photographer who now calls New Zealand home. She was the second-ever female finalist at Whistler’s Pro Photographer Showdown in 2012 and her photos have been featured in the prestigious Red Bull Illume showcase. A graduate of London’s Saint Martins College of Art, Camilla made a pilgrimage to the South Island of New Zealand and ended up in the mountain town of Wanaka. We spoke to her from her home base on a high-country sheep farm.

WM: You are from Scotland but ended up in New Zealand. How did that move take place?

Camilla Stoddart: In my summer break before art school, I decided to look for southern hemisphere snow, and I found a ski instructor’s course in a small town in New Zealand called Wanaka. Little did I know that trip would change the course of my life. I loved the place and the people so much I traveled south every summer for four years to teach skiing at Treble Cone. After graduating, in 2005, I took my camera to the ski fields and combined my two passions, skiing and photography. I spent the next four years doing back-to-back winters between New Zealand and Verbier in the Swiss Alps, taking photos of skiing and living the dream. In 2009, I decided I needed a summer and NZ would be the place to do it. I haven’t left since.

WM: Why New Zealand?

Camilla: In my opinion NZ is the most beautiful and unspoiled place on Earth. The South Island is about the size of the whole UK and with only a population of 1 million people there is so much space to roam. It is an incredibly diverse country. Travel an hour and the scenery can change so dramatically you would swear you were in another country. NZ is full of entrepreneurs and can-do attitudes, so it breeds creativity.

WM: How did you first get into photography?

Camilla: I studied theatre design, not photography, at art school. I don’t remember ever thinking at that point I wanted to become a photographer. I thought I wanted to be a filmmaker. I think it was my love of skiing, the mountains and travel that helped me make the decision to make photography my career. I took my camera to the snow and started shooting photos of my friends skiing. I was combining my skills of making the mountains my stage and a camera my medium of telling a story. Just like a play in a theatre.

WM: I assume you did these sports that you photograph—skiing and biking—before you started shooting them?

Camilla: Yes, I’m a passionate skier. My parents took my siblings and me skiing in Scotland from a young age and I’ve always been drawn to the mountains. I grew up in the country, playing outdoors and riding my horse. I started mountain biking about seven years ago. And only when I did my first summer (after all those years of chasing winter) did I start shooting photos of mountain biking. 

WM: What’s your favorite sport to capture in photos?

Camilla: I love shooting all action sports as I think it’s the human element in the outdoors that makes me excited. It’s amazing seeing what people can do when using our landscape and what mother nature has given us. I’ve taken photos of BASE jumping a few times and it was the most exhilarating sport I’ve photographed. Watching a person leap into space off a cliff in front of you is quite spectacular and extremely nerve wracking. But I would have to say my favorite, because it’s what I know best, would be big mountain skiing.

WM: Describe your style of photography—what are you known for?

Camilla: I think I’m known for showing the big picture. I like to be able to tell a whole story with one photograph. So if it’s an athlete doing a jump, I like to include other things in the picture like their surroundings, and put the person in context. I always say to myself, ‘If I was to take the athlete out, would the photo still be interesting?’

WM: What’s the hardest thing about your job?

Camilla: Watching people get hurt. A lot of what I shoot can be extremely dangerous and watching athletes get hurt is always hard, especially when they are doing it for the lens. The other hardest thing, which can also be the best thing, is the weather. I always shoot outdoors, so it can be extremely frustrating when the weather gods don’t play ball and you spend hours and days shooting with no avail.

WM: And the best part?

Camilla: The weather! Sometimes when you think everything has gone to custard you can be rewarded with the most spectacular light and get shots you never could have dreamed of. Thanks to the ever-changing weather it always keeps you on your toes and rewards you when you least expect it.

Find Camilla on Facebook here.

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