I had a brief chat with journalist, Sussi Lorinder while chilling in my hammock after my 11th edition of The Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica.
I very much prefer being behind a camera than in-front of one. As a good friend once said, ‘You have a face for radio!’ I concur.
If interested, have a read HERE
You may need to use Google Translate for the link above, English translation below.
Thanks to Swedish Photographers’ Association
Ian Corless has created a career as a running photographer and has the whole world as his field of work. Text: Sussi Lorinder.
Photo: Ian Corless
Ian Corless is in his hammock outside his tent with a beer in hand, I sit in a sun lounger with my bottle of recovery drink. We are located in Drake Bay on the Corcovado Peninsula in Costa Rica. The sun is about to set and colors the sky rose-orange. We have both just finished a race; a six-day adventure that Ian photographed and I ran. The soundscape is almost deafening, waves crashing against the shore, howler monkeys in the palm trees above us and cicadas hissing.
Ian Corless cleans one of his cameras from dust and dirt. The week has been a tough week as he followed the elite in the race. The environment and the weather are the biggest challenges when photographing running competitions and above all The Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica. The humidity is high here and the roads are very dusty. Ian also prefers to stand in the most spectacular places, which requires him to get there before the elite.
Photo: Ian Corless
“Pressing the button and actually taking the picture itself is what takes the least time and energy,” he says.
The logistics of a race are often a big challenge. Getting by car between two places where he wants to photograph can take significantly longer than it takes to run. They might run across a mountain but often he has to drive around. Here in Costa Rica, the roads are harsh dirt roads, so keeping a high speed with the car is impossible.
“Most of the nicest places are far away from the road, so it also requires good physical fitness to get there,” he says.
Lucky that Ian is a strong runner himself. His career started with him running the races himself with a camera. Then he only got pictures of the runners who were about as fast as himself.
“The advantage when you run the race yourself is that you actually get to all the places and know where the coolest environments are,” he says. “But sweat is a big opponent in Costa Rica due to the humidity. You sweat profusely after just five minutes of running; my cameras don’t feel so good about that,” he adds.
For several years Ian worked as a food and advertising photographer and ran in his spare time. In 2011, he was going to run a race and brought his camera to coincide with the start of a trail running podcast, Talk Ultra. He took some pictures and realised that no one was doing what he was doing. From races, Ian had only seen pictures taken of the runners smiling into the camera, pictures taken without much thought. He wanted to do something different, build up the image in the environment where the race took place, to sell the race and the place. Most of the time, he photographs without the runners seeing him, in order to get authenticity and more feeling in the pictures.
Photo: Ian Corless
Working as a race photographer can look glamorous on social media. Ian has travelled to some really exotic places and has about 175 travel days a year. But often he doesn’t go home to Norway between trips, but like now, for example, he directly travels from Costa Rica to Gran Canaria. Then it is important to have an understanding family and be able to plan ahead. Ian usually makes his annual calendar in November and since his girlfriend Abelone is a runner, they check which races she wants to run too and plan the calendar together. In this way, they meet even when he travels a lot. On stage races, you also usually live in tents close to each other. Sleep is easily disturbed when it is very hot or very cold or the tent neighbour is snoring loudly.
– But it’s worth it, says Ian and looks out over the magnificent sunset.
Photo: @cusukofotografiacr
Name: Ian Corless
Age: 57
Lives: in Norway but travels about half the year
Dream destination: Patagonia
Instagram: @iancorlessphotopraghy
IAN CORLESS 