ADAM Edwards has spent years photographing the landscapes of the Far West, but his next project will bring these landscapes back home to Broken Hill.
Edwards, a landscape photographer, photography teacher and tour operator, grew up in Broken Hill, with an artistic mum who helped inspire his creativity as a child.
“I grew up like a block from where I live now, which is pretty cool,” he said.
“I was always into arts and crafts because my mum was arty, she was always painting.”
Edwards said his mum was often working with her hands, whether that be oil and acrylic painting, home renovating or gardening, and so he began making art in different forms at a young age.
“I really loved drawing at school, though the irony is I always wanted to learn trades and be a mechanic,” he said.
Edwards said he jumped at the opportunity to learn to be a heavy diesel mechanic, but his arts practice was sidelined while he studied.
“After a couple of years, I had some money so I bought a decent digital camera,” he said.
“And I just fell in love with photography.”
Edwards said he photographed everything and anything, though landscapes were his preference as he was spending lots of time travelling.
“I just love beautiful places, vistas where you stand there and realise how insignificant you are, those really humbling sort of moments,” he said.
Soon he amassed a following on social media.
“It snowballed from there,” he said.
“I did a bit of everything because I was working seven days on, seven days off, so I had quite a bit of spare time.
“I was photographing weddings, commercial, magazine features for muscle car and 4WD magazines.
“It started to feel like heaps of work, because I wasn’t doing much of what I enjoyed doing anymore.”
Edwards said he struggled to find the balance in monetising a passion, and began to experience symptoms of burnout and stress, which led him to hang up his camera for a few years.
“Since picking it back up I turn down a lot of work that I don’t want to do,” he said.
He taught a hobby course in photography at Robinson College, which encouraged him to begin teaching photography of his own accord.
“I really enjoyed teaching, and then the whole workshop just grew from nothing out of that,” he said.
“I was posting so much stuff from Broken Hill, and people would message me asking if I would teach them one on one.”
He started running photography workshops in the Far West, offering multi-day tours of Mungo National Park, Broken Hill and surrounds, Corner Country, the Flinders Ranges, and even overseas in Iceland and Kenya.
“The most popular trip is Mungo National Park,” he said.
“Because it’s such a unique location and fairly hard to get to for the general public.
“Also because I got permission to take people to the off-limits area, the Walls Of China.”
Edwards’ latest project is converting the old ARB building on Crystal Street into a multi-faceted arts space.
“I have lots of plans for it, but when it opens it will be a gallery, workshop and there’ll be co-working spaces.”
Edwards said he wanted to always stock local art and produce to help visitors to support locals.
“People are looking for more connection, so it feels like time to bring that back,” he said.
“The idea is the space will offer a shared space for the community, where people can bring their laptop and a coffee, and come in to work and meet.”
Edwards is hoping to launch the space to the public on March 1.
