ISAAC RIETVELD
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
I'm Isaac, a 19 year old landscape photographer from Edmonton, Canada. Growing up I always enjoyed a trip somewhere but never had a strong connection with outdoors, exploring, and really any sort of physical activity. That lasted up until a few years back in 2020 when the lockdown inevitably forced me into trying to find something to do with my time (real unique story, I know).
Ever since then my passion for photography has snowballed and engulfed my whole life. It quickly became everything I thought of, talked about, and did in any of my free time. My whole life transformed, I had a new lease on life. I was always either out of the house exploring, or trying to plan my next shoot. From that point on I took any chance to take little trips out to the countryside or maybe if I was lucky out to the Rockies. Still at this point though, I didn't have a license or a car so getting around from photo to photo was always a struggle.
After a couple of years of travelling with others (mainly my mother who spent months on the road with me and countless sleepless nights chasing the aurora and other astro targets), getting chauffeured around I finally took action and got my license. Since then I've covered tens, possibly even hundreds of thousands of kilometres alone on the road over a fairly short period of time so far. It still baffles me how much of a 180 my life has taken over these past few years, going from never leaving my room and being in a fairly dark place to seeing nature for all it is, hiking, camping, exploring, and almost completely healing me inside and out.
Recently, in April of 2024, I flew the coop and moved alone across the world to pursue my dreams of landscape photography in the insanely beautiful country of New Zealand. I'm so grateful I found this outlet and for all I've been able to capture and experience. It's been a wild ride so far with many more plans ahead, and I can't wait to see where this whole thing takes me.