Adventurers, Outdoors, Festivals, Stores/ProductsRichard Tilney-BassettKendal, EnglandKeen, Krystle Wright, Kendal Mountain Festival 2016, Lake District, England, Europe, Keen Footwear, 31-60

Trade 32 | Keen Europe

Adventurers, Outdoors, Festivals, Stores/ProductsRichard Tilney-BassettKendal, EnglandKeen, Krystle Wright, Kendal Mountain Festival 2016, Lake District, England, Europe, Keen Footwear, 31-60
Trade 32 | Keen Europe

30 hours in Kendal. A whistlestop visit to meet Netherlands based footwear company Keen at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. They had sought to find a couple of new ambassadors in the community at Yestival (trade 26) who had big plans for 2017, I threw my hat in the ring then Maren from Keen got in touch interested in working together following the festival

Among Keen's provision of coffee centric hydration, burgers for lunch and a very late-bordering-surreal Saturday night at the festival after party were passes to go watch any of the film screenings. Still a little jaded on the Sunday morning, one film - The Mysteries - stood out in particular for me. I returned to see Maren at the Keen stand only to find out its protagonist photographer Krystle Wright was also an ambassador and around somewhere. An hour later we were sat down with Krystle having coffee/lunch a little starstruck.

The vision came to Krystle Wright in a dream: a bird’s-eye view of BASE jumpers in flight over a stark desert landscape. When she awoke, the adventure photographer resolved to make that vision into reality. And with that, the dream turned into an obsession — one that led her on a four-and-a-half-year journey of failed attempts, uncooperative weather, disappointments and inward examination. The Mysteries follows a tenacious, and perhaps crazy, quest to chase down an elusive image and provides a glimpse into the kind of singular passion that drives people to reach their goals, regardless of what stands in the way.

Both Krystle and Dave Cornthwaite (trade 29) spoke very highly of their relationship with and support provided by Keen during their projects and adventures. That combined with this weekend and Keen's interest in helping/getting involved despite me being at the relatively early stage of everything spoke volumes of their approach and of what ambassadorship will hopefully bring.

The just like that, 30 hours later, I was back on a train to London with a new pair of boots on my feet.

Location

Trade

British photographer moving between hosts and countries through a back-to-back series of creative trades. Exchanging my photography for all of my needs in a mission to reach every continent without needing money.