Twenty-three year old extreme photographer Aidan Williams of Linden continues to hit incredible photographic heights.
Williams travels all over the world photographing slackliners – athletes who walk along a length of nylon rope across chasms – mostly in extreme temperatures and/or conditions.
He’s photographed blindfolded slackliners and record breaking slackliners from all over the world, usually while desperately trying to keep safe and warm himself.
“I’ve pushed myself and my camera to the absolute limit … through snowstorms, the biggest waves and at high altitude”.
He recently returned from a 10-day trip to Alaska photographing athletes on a 60 metre high gold mining dredge outside Fairbanks in the middle of the night at minus 20 degrees.
Two highline world record holders Mia Noblet from Canada and Friedi Kuhne from Germany both walked 1.9kms on a slackline.
“We were on a project to highline in the coldest conditions possible, searching for harsh conditions and amazing lines.”
“The old gold mining dredge is the size of a tall ship and has a steel foundation, which feels almost unbreakable. As soon as we first set eyes on it – we were hooked and had to rig a line.
The team scaled the machine to put in anchor points then returned at night and Williams set up on a frozen lake to take his shots.
“Our plan was to come back at night, a personal vision of mine for this location. With the dredge perfectly lighting up, I set up on the frozen lake, a reassuring crack or two beneath.
Williams said over the last six months he has photographed multiple world records – a 1.9 km record in Asbestos, Canada, as well as another that was 2.8kms – travelling all over Europe and North America, rigging extreme lines.
In October last year he won the Extreme Sports award at the International Photography Awards in New York.
Earlier last year he scored the holy grail of photography – a National Geographic cover – his breakthrough moment. It was a snap of the world record of Swiss born athete Samuel Volery at Navagio ‘Shipwreck Beach’ in Greece – when Volery walked a 570 metre line blindfolded without falling. He was also named Australasia's Top Emerging Photographer Award for 2018, an award run through Capture Magazine. He is using the money from the awards to continue to travel and purchase new equipment.
Williams said he is “living the dream”.
