2025-01-23
views : 51t's been a big year for renowned author, photographer, filmmaker, and adventurer Cory Richards, who dropped not one but two books. First up was "The Color of Everything," Richards' compelling memoir of his professional climbing days, his wildly successful photography career, and his struggles with mental health. Then came "Bi-Polar: Photographs from an Unquiet Mind," 300 stunning images of everything from Richards' expeditions to his early fashion work. Check out our intimate conversation with Richards, and then read the expanded interview below.
Can you tell us who you are?
My name is Cory Richards. I am a photographer; I guess I was a photographer. I took a lot of pictures, mostly for National Geographic magazine, and I also climbed professionally. But now I've shifted my focus to writing.
What prompted that shift?
Well, the thing that prompted the shift from photography and athletics to writing was, if I'm being honest, I was forced into it. I think the utility or the benefit of those modalities, or those ways of moving through life, I'd wrung them out. And I was aware that they weren't working in the same way that they had for so many years.
I was in base camp on the side of the seventh highest mountain in the world, trying to do a new route. I had a mixed bipolar episode—I’m bipolar II—and it was very obvious in that moment that whatever I was doing wasn't working. In the wake of that, I shifted my focus and my attention to writing, largely because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know where else to put that creative energy that's always there. I didn't know how to make sense of letting go of big pieces of my identity, but I knew I needed to do something. And I think in some ways it was just almost reactionary. It was a reaction to trying to sort out pieces of myself that didn't make sense.
