MITCHELL MILBURY

Where did it all start?

I was raised in Woodstock, New Brunswick—a small town just minutes from the Maine, U.S. border, and just hours to the East coastline of Canada. It is a landscape dominated by forests and open, wide-farmed fields. I am fascinated by the forest, and like my father, I have an endless appreciation for trees and the land around us. When I was very young, I would spend days roaming the Appalachian hard wooded forests nearby my home. I would wonder around in the woods for 4-6 hour periods, completely loosing track of time. “Where have you been!?” my mother would ask, worried.

​

​

​

Looking Back, I realize that growing up in the woods—being surrounded by it—created the groundwork for my gratitude that I have toward the natural world around us. Today, that appreciation is greater than ever and growing, which ultimately  inspires me to get outside and expose the beauty around us. 

​

Growing up I always gravitated towards art, even though I thrived in math and sciences academically. I would draw and paint in my free time and was always told I was pretty good at it. When I was younger, I never considered photography. Back then I thought the only avenues in photography were in portraiture or for documentation purposes. It wasn’t until Christmas of 2017, when I bought my first camera, I discovered landscape photography as an art form.   

 I planned my first shoot shortly after I bought that camera. I had it all planned out with the sunrise direction, location, and subject. I was even crazy enough to get up at 6 a.m. in -20C weather just to catch the right light for the image I wanted to create that morning. I remember standing there behind my tripod as the orange morning sun slowly crept over the horizon; casting its warmth onto the blue frozen river, and directly onto my subject. I was exhilarated and pressing the shutter button like a crazy man. I walked away feeling thrilled and excited, even though it was 7 a.m. and -20C. It felt like I was the only one present; the only one there in the entire city on that early Sunday morning. Being out there, just simply standing and observing, I thought this is what I want to spend my time doing. This was on the morning that I first started photography.