Cory Richards is an internationally renowned photographer, filmmaker, author, and advocate for mental health. In 2017, he was the keynote speaker at South by Southwest, speaking about mental health through his career as an artist. His speaking career has placed him on stages in front of world leaders, policymakers, and titans of industry, using his life as a conduit to illuminate the global issues we face and how to overcome them through re-humanization, the reimagining of leadership, and vulnerability.
Much of Cory’s life has been defined by his journey with mental health, to which he speaks openly and honestly, laying bare the hidden struggles that so many face in silence and solitude. As a high school dropout at 14, his life has followed an irregular arch that has lent itself well to exploring the balance of high achievement and struggles with mental health. His advocacy work has garnered millions of views online through his social media platforms as well as through his speaking career.
Above all, he is an artist and storyteller who passionately explores the human experience through all mediums. His work for National Geographic Magazine began with adventure features, exploring the most remote corners of the globe, from Antarctica to the Russian Arctic. As a professional climber, his early career was defined by high-risk expeditions, and he leaned on his unique skillset to capture stories that were largely out of reach to others.
In 2011, Cory became the first and only American to climb one of the world’s 8000 m peaks in winter, summiting Gasherbrum II in the Karakoram Himalaya of Pakistan. On the descent, his team was swept away by an avalanche in which they were all buried but narrowly escaped with their lives. His documentation of the climb and aftermath of the experience was made into the award-winning documentary COLD and appeared on the cover of the 125th anniversary issue of National Geographic Magazine.
In 2012, Richards received the prestigious designation of National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and in 2014, he was named a National Geographic Photographer Fellow. In 2016, he and his partner Adrian Ballinger climbed Everest without the use of supplementary oxygen, garnering over two billion media impressions for the effort, pioneering Snapchat and social media as real-time story-telling mechanisms for adventure pursuits.
He is a two-time recipient of an Explorers Grant and has used his platform to extend far beyond adventure in recent years, documenting topics from climate change to conflict to sociology and archeology to disappearing cultures and conservation. To date, he has photographed 12 feature assignments for the magazine.
In 2016, Richards spoke at the World Economic Forum on the importance of connecting the human family to the natural world, fostering a deeper connection to the planet in order to incite action towards climate issues.
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Work Cory is lesser known for, but equally passionate about is fashion, portraiture, and editorial, a call back to where he started as a photographer’s assistant over 20 years ago. When he is not on assignment, he is on location for consciously capitalist lifestyle brands that are invested in sustainability, DEI, giving back, and mental health.
He is the author of two books: The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within and Bi-Polar: Photographs from an Unquiet Mind.
