Christopher Beauchamp is a Connecticut based location
photographer specializing in dramatic environmental portraits and dynamic
adventure sports imagery for advertising, editorial and corporate clients. His
work can be seen at http://www.christopherbeauchamp.com/
This series of images of Rock Climbers on West Rock was part
of a cover feature in Rock & Ice Magazine on Climbing in Connecticut. West
Rock had been enjoying a mini renaissance among local climbers for the past
several years so it was pretty exciting to see it catch a tiny slice of
national attention. The rock there tends toward the loose and crumbly which why
it was undervalued for so long, but on the sections of clean rock the climbing
is actually quite good. Of course since the article there’s been a bump in
climber traffic which is great. Some of the areas over there have been plagued
with graffiti, litter, homeless camps etc. and I’d like to believe that the
presence of good resource stewards (climbers) will help improve that. It’ll
never be a great climbing mecca, but I love it when I pull up to the stop light
in Westville and catch a glimpse of someone up there climbing in the sunshine
there. Photographically speaking this is a great location, I love the
intersection of the urban and natural worlds and being able to play with that
relationship on a visual level. – Christopher Beauchamp
