Camilla Rutherford (photographer)

Camilla Rutherford (born 7 August 1983) is a Scottish award-winning photojournalist who lives in Wanaka, New Zealand. Rutherford specializes in outdoor sports photography and often shoots in the mountains of New Zealand. She shoots everything from sports, travel, and lifestyle.
Personal.
Rutherford was born in Edinburg, Scotland, on 7 August 1983 to a family of five children. She had always been an outdoor adventurer and, like her mother, she later became a ski instructor. She studied at St. Martins College of Art in London where she earned an Arts Honors Degree. Rutherford then traveled to the South Island of New Zealand and ended up in Wanaka. She married Tim Rutherford and has a son named Alfie. Before she moved to Wanaka, she alternated between Verbier, Switzerland, and Wanaka so that she could both live in the southern and northern hemisphere. After she married Tim, she moved to his farm in Tarras. She settled down officially in Wanaka. The South Island is filled with peaks and lakes where the bottom can be seen from the top. She went to Wanaka for the outdoor factor and that is where she likes to photograph the most. According to Rutherford, the outdoors are where the pictures turn out the best. Rutherford shoots mostly in the mountains all over New Zealand to get her perfect shots. She says, "Beautiful things happen when people and the mountains meet".
Career.
Rutherford grew up in Scotland and has worked as a freelance photographer since graduating from St. Martins College in London, with a major in Theatre Design. Her background in theatre led to her interest in photography and her love of skiing. She started as a ski instructor with a camera and is now an award winning photographer. To add to her interest in photography, she launched her new website in 2009. The Faction Collective ski company advertised her website to their users to promote her work. Rutherford left her home in Scotland to go to New Zealand to resume her love for skiing. She started shooting with her Iphone 4 before getting her Canon camera. She shot in the winter for four years before moving to Wanaka and shooting her first summer photos there. Wanaka is not far from Mount Aspiring National Park where she sometimes takes photographs. She also travels to Nepal, China, Japan, India and Switzerland to get some shots as well. Usually using her Canon 5D Mark 3 camera, she says capturing the athletes in their element is the most critical part in telling the story within the picture. The landscapes and terrain in Wanaka help produce her work. "It can be as simple as someone standing admiring a vista, not even doing anything extreme but simply taking it all in, and this gives a whole new meaning to the photo", Rutherford says. She has many pictures published on her website, social media, and Vimeo made a slideshow to display her work. Many of her pictures have been published in travel magazines all over the world. Air New Zealand used her pictures in their advertisements in Sydney and Melbourne’s Central train stations as part of an ad campaign for Air NZ. Rutherford is supported by F-Stop Gear, Peak Design, Cecilia Gallery, Smith Optics and Faction Skis.
Impact.
The "Outdoor Journal" wrote that female photographers like Rutherford and several others challenged our ideas about women could do in what had been a male dominated area of outdoor adventure and sport photography and this inspires other women.
"Photographing people in landscapes is a passion of mine. I guess that's why I love shooting adventure sports," says Rutherford.
Reactions.
When Rutherford won the Scandinavian Photo Challenge, judge Seb Kemo commented, "Her show was a stunning show where every shot was a scorcher, the edit was well timed and balanced, and there was plenty of story and narrative in the slideshow. All judges were unanimous that hers was the top show. Judging by the reactions from the audience, we obviously made the right choice."
Awards.
Rutherford was a finalist in the Wings category of the Red Bull Competition in 2010, shooting BASE jumper Josie Symons in Mt. Aspiring National Park. In 2011, Rutherford got together with a group of mountain bike photographers in Are, Sweden, for the Scandinavian Photo Challenge by Nikon, which she won. She was featured in the Exposure section of "Outside Magazine" in 2011. Rutherford appeared as a finalist in the Pro Photographer Showdown in 2012. She was also a finalist in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year in 2013. Rutherford was featured in "Outside Magazine"s Best Travel photography in 2014 with a picture of moonlight bliss in New Zealand. Rutherford was one of the winners of the 2015 New Zealand Press Photographer of the Year. Her photos were displayed as part of an exhibition "The Botanist" in Auckland on 9 December 2015. Rutherford was also voted one of the world's best female action sports photographers by "Still Stoked". In 2018, she was a finalist in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year.