Chris Burkard's Captivating Photos of Surfers in the Wild Capture the Extreme Side of Summer

Chris Burkard takes photos in the most extreme weather.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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California-based photographer Chris Burkard is an avid traveler and a lover of nature. His Instagram pictures alone reveal his passion for exploring and his appreciation of adventure. For his most recent book, Distant Shores: Surfing the Ends of the Earth, Burkard left the comfort of California shores and traveled the world from continent to continent in order to capture surfers in action.

Burkard moves from stereotypical images of sun-filled surfing to a rougher surfing environment. His photos are not only captivating and authentic in terms of composition, but they reveal the harsh conditions some surfers endure to catch the perfect wave. From Alaska to Russia and New Zealand to India, Burkard took photos of brave surfers encountering any obstacle nature had in store.

"I want people to drift away when they look at my images," Burkard said in the short video Arctic Swell: Surfing the Ends of the Earth. "I want them to feel like it's taken them so far from where they are at that moment, that they're immersed in that feeling."

An exhibition of Burkard's most recent work will be displayed in conjunction of Van's U.S. Open of Surfing competition at the Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach, Calif. from Aug. 1 to Aug. 3. 

[via The Daily Beast]

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