2005 Banff Mountain Photography Competition
Special Mention
John Beatty: “Sula — The Seabird Hunters of Lewis, Scotland”
“Once a year, in the utmost secrecy, 10 chosen men from the Isle of Lewis spend two weeks on a remote Atlantic rock where they harvest 2000 gannets as part of a legacy that has existed for over four centuries. Until now, no outsider has been allowed onto the island of Sula Sgeir to witness the catching, plucking and salting of the birds prior to them being shipped to Lewis. I lived closely with the men, sleeping in century-old beehive dwellings, eating on food cooked on peat fires and listening to incantations from the Gaelic Bible. This is an extraordinary story rooted in age-old tradition and infused with hardship, mystery and ritual.”
John Beatty’s photography is chiefly concerned with the timeless rhythms of the natural environment, its beauty and simplicity, and man’s place within it. He has travelled throughout the world. Major expeditions include seven months spent in Antarctica, a winter in Spitzbergen and a four-hundred-mile ski traverse of the Greenland Icecap, as well as numerous climbing exploits in the European Alps and the U.S.A. In addition to his book Earthborn (Sierra Club Books), his work has appeared in many major outdoor magazines in Britain, and features by him have been published in European, Japanese and American periodicals. Beatty works closely with his London agent, Getty Images. He lives in the Peak District, in Derbyshire, England.