Steve Parish sees himself as a storyteller with a camera. His career behind the lens began in his teens, when he photographed fish. As his passion to photograph all of Australia’s habitats and fauna evolved, he acquired the skills to capture diverse subjects and styles, from documentary to abstract. Today, he is Australia’s most versatile, prolific and widely published natural and social history photographer.
Now in his mid-sixties, Steve keeps busy collecting new images for his well-established publishing company. He spends around half of each year in the field and the remaining time assembling books from his home on a bush block in Brisbane, which he shares with his wife and business partner, Catherine, and with Quincy, a demanding shorthaired pointer. He has embraced social media and enjoys communicating with like-minded people from all over the world. He is also working on new ranges of e-books.
Steve likes to approach his work from both a naturalist’s and artist’s perspective. In 2010, he set out to “re-photograph” Australia with some of the world’s most advanced digital cameras. His challenge now is to expand on previous work in terms of content and style.
“I am motivated by a passion for nature. Acknowledging the loss of many of our unique wild places and creatures, I have made my objective as a photographer and publisher to inspire others to champion their protection. We inherited a world in balance and we should all play a part in the redress of that balance. We consider it our contribution and moral obligation to produce and sell our nature publications.
My dream is that this generation can stand up and make a difference and champion nature. In 1992, I decided that to inspire change I needed to focus more on children. After all, the adults didn’t seem to be listening. The kids are the frontline for the environment now. So today, my work and my company’s work are very much focused on encouraging young people to love nature, to live within the natural world, to question and search and discover, and most importantly, to follow their dreams and live their passion.” Steve Parish
