The intrepid explorer

Working with National Geographic since the mid-1980s, Kansas-based Jim Richardson has introduced a global audience to the many quirks of Scottish tradition

Looking to fuel your wanderlust? Sit down with Jim Richardson for an hour, writes Rosie Morton. Editorial story photographer for National Geographic Magazine and contributing editor for its sister publication Traveler Magazine, Jim has seen corners of the world that most of us have only dreamt of. An intrepid explorer documenting the world through a lens, he has seen everything from oca harvests in Peru to seed banks in Norway, Arctic to Antarctic climes. Possessing of an undeniable allure, however, Bonnie Scotland has enticed Jim to return up to four times a year for the last 26 years.

‘It was an unknown country to me with much to be discovered,’ begins Jim, who lives in Kansas and often travels to ten countries in eight weeks. ‘Over time, I recognised a very strong and long agricultural tradition with unique aspects, including crofting, whisky and seafood, as well as traditions in the estate system, shooting and management of wildlife.’

Intensely researching projects ahead of time to ensure the best photo opportunities are seized, Jim’s images of the quirks and cultures of Orkney, the whisky regions, moorland, and the Hebrides have been revered across the globe.

‘The luckiest photo I ever took was when I was in Dalwhinnie on the whisky country story,’ he says. ‘I had stopped to photograph Rusty and Tufty, two Highland cows that people stopped to pet. They were supremely gentle. I got my lens on my tripod and this guy walked into my picture – he had a mohawk haircut, was wearing black leather, and had a loaf of bread. In about thirty seconds he had given the loaf to Rusty and Tufty. Then he was gone.’

As a freelancer, Jim is acutely aware of the need to capture unique perspectives. ‘Back in the day, National Geographic had staff photographers, but that ended in about 1990. During my era, you were only as good as your last story. We always felt it was possible to survive one mediocre story, but not two.

‘I always want to believe there is a story to tell,’ says Jim of his work. ‘Even if it is just pure geology or landscape that you are photographing. If you look at

Orkney’s stone circles from 5,000 years ago, for example, real people lived there. It’s not just dusty archaeology. It makes a very powerful story, and the pictures involve the viewers in that story. That’s one of the most powerful things I can do.’

Since his first trip to Scotland in 1994, Jim has been honoured by his fellow Nat Geo colleagues as their Photographer’s Photographer in 2015, and has been given an honorary degree from Kansas State University for his work in cultural and environmental communications.

‘I have to say that no photograph is as good as the thing itself. While I like my pictures of gannets flying from Boreray, for example, it’s nothing compared to the experience of being there on the back deck of the boat about to be lurched into the sea. If I had a goal, it would be that the photographs encourage people to go and experience these things themselves.’

Pictures involve the viewers in a story – that’s one of the most powerful things I can do

That’s the spirit: The towering piles of casks at the Speyside Cooperage.

Above: The Mar Lodge stag ballroom has a spectacular 2,435 red deer stags heads lining the walls and ceiling. Right: Cutting peat on the Isle of Lewis.

Clockwise from above: Forsinard Flows near the hamlet of Forsinard in Sutherland; Balblair Distillery; Firing casks at the Speyside Cooperage; Reraig Forest, head gamekeeper Colin Murdoch feeding stags on the hills overlooking Loch Carron; Hauling cattle off the little island of Ensay back to the Isle of Harris.