Photographer Scott Rinckenberger shares his story

Earlier this month, as a part of ArtsFest, photographer and adventurer Scott Rinckenberger visited Overlake to share his story with Upper School students. 

He began by sharing his unconventional journey. Starting as a professional skier, he knew that career had a ‘limited horizon’, so he looked elsewhere towards photography. 

“I knew the world didn’t need another action sports photographer,” Rinckenberger shared. “I had no idea what I could bring to the table. I was a really good skier and learning photography quickly, but I knew that wasn’t a path there yet.”

So, he took the chance to learn as much as he could from others. He spent the next decade working with photographer Chase Jarvis learning the industry and weathering the monumental shift from film to digital and print to online. However, he still had no intentions of becoming a nature photographer. “Photography was my day job and skiing was my love,” he recalls. But as time went along, he started shooting photos on his ski trips for himself, but then others started noticing his work. 

He found a style and artistic voice that was unique to him. “The most important thing I learned at my job was that being good is absolutely not enough, you have to be different.”

Bigger brands started to take notice of his work and reached out for marketing and advertising work, REI, Intel, even Apple. And while he was grateful for the work, he began to feel that while it was good, his commercial work did not represent him well as an artist, so he doubled down on the art side of his work. 

His perspective and approach shifted over time. After living through the passing away of peers who were caught in avalanches and becoming a father to two, he no longer felt comfortable taking large risks in treacherous weather conditions. He realized that he did not have to travel to a different country each month to find beauty, he could find it just up the road at Snoqualmie Pass in his own backyard. 

As the world became more digital, he felt strongly that, “beautifully printed, carefully curated photography still has a place in this world. But more importantly, real world, in person, community-based relationships don’t go out of style, and they have never been needed more than they are right now.” This led him to take a chance and open his gallery in North Bend that features rotating collections of his work. This space has allowed him to express himself and his art in a completely authentic way, bring the community together, and advocate for environmental change. He shared one fond memory about an evening where community members were invited to gather at his gallery and write letters to their representatives discouraging the sale of large tracts of public lands. 

 “My driving force is to celebrate, protect, and defend the natural world that has been at the very core of my passions for my entire life.” 

Rinckenberger connected with Overlake back in October when students from Chris Schwalm’s media production class reached out to produce a profile video on him. Four students and a couple Overlake chaperones went on a class field trip to his gallery in North Bend to film the interview and collect B-roll.

Schwalm was excited to see the work the students did and encouraged students to, “be careful to try and not produce a video ‘for’ him, but rather tell his story in as much of an observational way as possible.” You can watch their final piece, here.

Rinckenberger closed with a message of encouragement for students. “Do what you love…the energy you put into the universe is most potent if there’s joy in it, and if there’s love in it.”