Shot over a week just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina as well as on the Salt Flats in Utah, theses photos by Christopher Wilson will make you appreciate the beauty of skydiving. Generously using negative space, he creates an atmospheric body of work, capturing movement and color in almost an impressionistic way. Inspired by the late American photographer Irving Penn, Wilson believed, “He was a god. He could shoot anything and make it art.” In fact, though Wilson isn’t a skydiver and has never partaken of the sport, he found it intriguing and worth documenting. Why? As he tells us, ” I’m always drawn to people who are passionate about what they do, whether they be ranchers, surfers, skydivers, doesn’t matter. It’s all interesting to me.”
As an ex-advertising creative, he helped shape the Audi brand. Now, as a global photographer, Christopher has shot in virtually every country on the planet for clients that include Ritz-Carlton and NASCAR. I asked Christopher to tell us what advice he would give to aspiring photographers. Here’s what he said. “Never stop shooting. Never stop experimenting. Never be satisfied. Work, work, work. I’m always trying to do it better, make it better, learn something new.” Christopher Wilson