Meet Isaac Rosenbaum | Travel Photographer in the United States

We had the good fortune of connecting with Isaac Rosenbaum and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Isaac, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Being a travel photographer is always a gamble. Every long drive or hike always comes with questions as to whether or not it will be worth it. Sometimes the weather won’t work out the way I hope it will, and in the winter, roads and trails might be closed or inaccessible. Travel photography always comes with a level of uncertainty. Every once in a while, I’ll come out on the other end of a long drive and hike, the sky will clear up just in time for sunset, revealing beautiful hues of red and blue in the sky with a pink alpenglow on the mountains, and all that uncertainty is all of a sudden worth. It’s these moments I chase after, despite the risks. It’s the moments where I’m sitting at the edge of a viewpoint with my camera, reaping the reward of the journey, where I realise all the flat tires, bad weather, or scrambles up the sides of mountains were worth it.

One example of this was a year ago when I attempted to photograph Mt. Rainier in the winter. I had gone up about four times, each time getting my car stuck in the snow on a bad trail, running into road closures, or being forced to turn around due to bad weather and low visibility. On my fifth trip to the mountain last winter, I decided to park my car at the beginning of the road closure, strap on snow shoes, and hike through the snow for 12 miles to get to the viewpoint. While it wasn’t the most spectacular photo, all of the effort made the moment more beautiful to me. I watched the sun set over the snow capped Mt. Rainier, snowy trees and frozen lake, and felt a strong sense of accomplishment, paired with the fatigue from the journey.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
For the past couple years especially, the focus of my work has been in the United States. While COVID cut my international travels short, I decided to pour my time in extensively exploring all 50 of the United States. Most of my time was spent between Montana, Washington and Utah, although I also spent time in Hawaii and Alaska in 2021. Something my followers have told me, is that my photography had instilled within them a greater appreciation for our country. One person in particular told me, “your photography showed me there’s so much to explore in the United States. I always thought I had to travel the world to see some of those things.”

Of course, traveling the world will take you to places you can never imagine, no matter how extensively you explored the United States. However, I believe there is a beauty in our own country that is often overlooked. My hope is to show people, through my work, how ecologically and geographically diverse our country can be, and to show that no matter how much you think you know about it, there’s always more to explore. The country is big, it’s nuanced, and it’s extremely diverse culturally, ideologically, geographically, and ecologically.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people I could mention in this, mainly those who have come with me on my favourite trips. While I spend most of my time on the road alone, I am extremely grateful for my best friend, Nate Vigil. He has come with me on some of my favourite, and life changing trips around the country. Most notably, last March, Nate and I made the trip up to Alaska to see the northern lights. We spent about a week driving all night around the mountains, bearing the -35 degree weather chasing the northern lights. At about three in the morning on our last night in Denali, we watched the faint glow turn into a beam of light, shooting over the Denali Mountains over our heads. One beam turned into two, and then four, until a swarm of lights danced above our heads in an overwhelming choreography of purple and green, illuminating the mountains and the snow around us. Being able to do this and bear the elements with my best friend made it all the more worth it.

Another key to my success has been in having friends all over the United States who have brought me in and given me a place to sleep and shower during my time on the road. Without the hospitality of these people, I would not have had the strength to be on the road for as long as I was, and I would never have been able to visit all 50 states.

Instagram: isaacrosey

Image Credits
Alex Kerr