CONOR MCDONNELL: A PLATFORM FOR CHANGE

What drives people to push their minds and bodies to breaking point? Why choose to be alone, cut off, out of touch for months, potentially years? Why risk everything in the pursuit of challenge? Life On The Edge is the new interview series from Shackleton that tackles these questions, featuring today’s most inspiring adventurers, explorers and pioneers. In this episode, photographer and WWF ambassador Conor McDonnell goes under the spotlight with award-winning travel journalist Sophy Roberts.

A Nikon camera is Conor’s passport to the world. From the day he blagged his way into a music concert as a ‘press photographer’ at the age of 16, his path was seemingly set in stone. His skill behind the lens has since taken him on tour with some of the biggest names in the music industry, far into the Arctic Circle to document climate change, and onto the plains of Africa to work alongside Sir David Attenborough. All before turning 30.

His images have received global acclaim, from popular culture covering the work of celebrities, to national press highlighting plastic trapped in Arctic sea ice miles from the nearest essence of civilisation, to moments in the wild captured as part of his WWF ambassadorial role. The result is that his audience is large and diverse – Conor has a platform to inform and inspire and it is a responsibility he doesn’t take lightly. “If I can highlight issues in the world and encourage people to change their ways or actions, then that’s something I want to achieve.”