Nick Mason: Outdoor and Documentary Photographer

I am an outdoor and documentary photographer based in Cardiff, UK, a former Top Professional for Olympus Cameras, now OM-Systems, and the recipient of the prestigious AP Power of Photography Award in 2021 for my photography documenting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on an intensive care unit in South Wales.

My interest in photography grew out of my love for mountains and from my very first steps into the hills as a teenager I always took a camera with me. Initially this was to record the places that I visited and the routes that I climbed but increasingly I found in photography the medium that I needed to express my love of the mountains and wild places that have been central to my life. Until recently, when not taking photographs, I worked as a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB), but after more than 35 years as a doctor I retired allowing me to devote (even) more time to photography.

I have been privileged to visit and photograph many extraordinarily beautiful places around the world, but I have increasingly found myself . . . drawn to the hills and valleys of my local Brecon Beacons National Park (Bannau Brecheiniog in Welsh). This unique landscape, carved from Old Red Sandstone, with its barren broad rolling ridges and flat-topped summits, presents unique challenges to the landscape photographer. I have spent many happy years making my way to a summit ridge before dawn, or lingering long after sunset, to capture the best light in which to show the effect of the changing seasons on this distinctive and strangely beautiful landscape that I have come to make my mountain home.

There are, however, many other important things to photograph. Through my work as Chair of Trustees for the charity the International Porter Protection Group UK (IPPG) I used my photography to bring attention to the plight of mountain porters in Nepal and IPPG's work at the two high altitude rescue posts in the mountain villages of Machermo and Gokyo. Tragically this work was forcibly closed down in 2020 as a result of Nepalese political corruption. More recently I photographed the impact of COVID-19 on the patients and staff of the Intensive Care Units of ABUHB.

Since 2023, looking for a new photographic challenge, I have begun to learn to photograph birds and wildlife. Undoubtedly the most difficult and, at times, frustrating photography that I have undertaken it is almost the most rewarding when successful. Regularly check the New Images and Birds galleries to see if you think I am improving.

Statement of Artistic Integrity

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