About Karen Edmundson Bean & Walking Wild Photography

Karen Edmundson Bean loves being in and photographing the back-of-beyond.

Her ramblings, with camera in hand, have taken her through wilderness areas of five continents. These photographic walks can range from a few hours stroll though the local mountains or a journey of weeks in backcountry regions.

She has traversed have traversed high alpine meadows, scrambled along rugged ocean shores, and moseyed through deep desert gulches. In all wilderness areas, Bean finds unending beauty in ever changing contrasts of nature – a beauty that she shares though both her digital and pinhole photographs.

Pinhole photography offers a lengthy, reflective observation of nature. The set up to take a pinhole photograph requires time and commitment to the image. A contemplative previsualization is followed by the setting of a tripod, light meter readings, contemplation of the zonal ranges to be recorded, numeric computations, an examination of what has changed in the image during this time.

 

Digital photography is a fast, fun capture of the immediate “now”, of creatures, flora and lands encountered in travels, both domestic and wild.

Bean usually travels the backcountry solo – accompanied by her “camera assistants”: her packgoats.

Bean has been shooting stills and films over 40 years. Her images have appeared in galleries in such cities as New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and Paris, France.

 

As a Cinematographer, she is one of the few women to have held Director of Photography status in the International Cinematographers Guild.

Her work ranged from action motion pictures to award-winning natural history productions. She holds the distinction of have filmed the only footage of a new born Baja Peninsular Pronghorn  in the wild.

A decision to spend more time in nature lead her base her current work from her off-grid farm in Maple Falls, Washington. There she embraces photography, beekeeping, and rambles through the wilderness areas.