Ken Scott Personal Biography
Impressed ? This is me, Ken Scott, at the very edge of my climbing ability. Sorry if you were expecting a mountain-photographer with climbing prowess!
Welcome to my short bio, which explains how I came to develop my intense love for the mountains and my photographic style.
A Passion for Wild Places
When I was 11 years old my parents took us on a family holiday to Snowdonia. The drive from Welshpool towards Dolgellau, and then through Beddgelert to Llanberis, captivated me totally and I can still feel the excitement. We climbed Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) that week, and I couldn't wait to do more. I walked with the Scouts, went hostelling with mates on the South Downs of Sussex, and camped in the New Forest. Then at 17 I fulfilled that dream by travelling to Snowdonia again with my good mate Wayne Gosden; the beginning of a lifelong passion.
In the early eighties, our regular outlet came via trips with SMF on a cramped bus from Brighton to the Lakes or North Wales. Ever since then, the long drive North on a Friday night to spend two nights in a small tent has become a feature of life for both of us. We have walked and climbed together in the Alps and Pyrenees as well as in the UK, and have made separate ascents and expeditions elsewhere in Europe, in North America and Africa.
We remain committed to camping high, and not just for photographic reasons. If there is one experience I would urge anyone to have just once in their lives it is to immerse oneself in the wilderness for a few days, and to witness the dawn from a high summit.
Photographic History
I would want to be outdoors had nobody ever invented a camera, but photography and mountaineering have become ever more closely entwined. A camera has helped me to see and to appreciate much more than I would have done otherwise. I am entirely self-taught. I had my first camera at age 8, a 120 roll film thing which I proudly opened to show my friend that I had a film in it! I bimbled about with borrowed cameras until I was given a Rollei 35 LED mini 35mm camera for my 18th birthday. This 1982 image made with the Rollei is the one that 'told me' I should take my photography seriously: it changed my thinking from photographing things to photographing "light".
It is often said that real learning is recognition of something you know.
In 1986 Galen Rowell's magnificent book Mountain Light
landed in my lap, confirming that light is the thing. And then I attended John Beatty's stunning AVs Touch the Earth
and Earthborn
; at Brighton Polytechnic. Most people left the theatre that night vowing to throw their cameras away, but it had completely the opposite effect on me. I could never approach the climbing standards of either Rowell or Beatty, but I was fantastically inspired by their photography. I knew I was already producing some half-decent stuff of my own, and I never looked back.
I published my first book, Photographing Changing Light
, in 2004 after many years of presenting, producing audio-visuals (inspired by John), judging and making images in the mountains. I am an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society (ARPS) and a member of Steyning Camera Club.
My Crew
I am married to Carolyn, who has been my best friend and constant companion since we were 16. We have three boys, Craig, Gavin and Liam, and we live in Upper Beeding, about 5km inland from Shoreham-by-Sea on the Sussex coast.
Other Trivia
One of my great weaknesses is a love for cricket, which goes back to when I would exasperate my mother by spending a whole motionless five days in front of the Test Match on TV. Now I exasperate myself by following the inconsistencies and false dawns of the England cricket side and Sussex County Cricket Club, as well as coaching and scratching around as an occasional player with Henfield Cricket Club.
A previous sporting life saw me competing at national level in sprint kayak over Olympic distances of 500m and 1000m. If you drive through Upper Beeding on a fine Summer evening, you still just might see me walking along the high street to the River Adur with a 5m kayak on my shoulder. Note I said "fine" evening!
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