Meet Austin Chow, fine art photographer and one of our newest Simply Framed partners! Austin specializes in adventure photography, seeking dramatic landscapes, remote locations and wildlife while drawing inspiration from life on the road. Case in point, the mind blowing image above that just so happens to be one of Austin’s personal favorites: Mount Moran and the powerful colors of fall reflecting in the calm morning waters of Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park. The metallic paper print is custom framed with a mat in our black gallery frame.
We sat down with the artist to discuss his journey and upcoming projects:
SF: How and when did you become interested in photography?
AC: Photography was always an interest of mine growing up, but I didn’t get serious about it until I started taking classes in college. That was before smart phones, Instagram and the really steep technology curves that came with the digital revolution. I started with classical training in film photography at Princeton University - learning how to create chemical baths, develop my own film and process prints by hand in addition to mastering the ins and outs of the camera itself. At the time I was shooting with a 35mm Canon AE-1 from the late 1970s, and even though I’ve since evolved heavily into digital photography, studying how the camera reads light, how the film captured light and how light was processed in the dark room remains my foundation and heavily influences how I shoot today.
SF: What has been the highlight of your career so far?
AC: I don’t think there is a single event that I would qualify as the ‘highlight’ of my career, but rather the lifestyle that this career allows me to have. I am very fortunate to spend a significant amount of time exploring unusual locations and immersing myself in different cultures. Thanks to photography, I’ve chased light on five continents, in over forty countries and through forty-three of the United States. Among many cherished experiences, I have hiked Torres del Paine, trekked the Tongariro Crossing, camped in the Amazon, skied the Andes backcountry, climbed the Tetons, run the Boston Marathon, free dived the waters of Fiji, eaten my way through Asia and raced the bulls in Pamplona. I am constantly on the move to discover new experiences, and I seek to inspire others to do the same. The world is a vast and mysterious place, and I always try to savor the adventure, one second, one snapshot, at a time.
SF: What’s on tap for you this summer?
AC: My upcoming shoot schedule includes travel to Thailand, Cambodia, Mexico, New York City and Iceland over the next couple months. I’ll also be heading back to Princeton at the end of May to launch a very special fine art collection of campus imagery in collaboration with the University. Fine art prints have never been accessible – to students, alumni, faculty or friends of the University – and I think it will be an exciting new offering for Tigers everywhere. Needless to say, I’m ecstatic about my partnership with Simply Framed. It is a dream come true to offer my customers a one-click, no hassle shopping experience while delivering a truly premium product to their doorstep. You guys have made this possible, and now my paper prints can arrive ready-to-hang, completely eliminating the extra time, hassle and cost of frame shops. I can’t think of anything better than that, and I am very grateful to be an SF partner!
Interested in seeing Austin’s work? Visit his website and be sure to follow him on facebook and instagram.
