Who we are - Craig (Caz) Fardell, photographer

Many of you likely know already, but it is with deep regret that we open this biography with the news that Craig has moved on to adventures in another realm. He succumbed to his battle with cancer on 5th June 2025.

Few photographers have captured as many of Australia’s wild places as Craig ‘Caz’ Fardell. And few have done it so beautifully. Craig began photographing wild and remote places more than 30 years ago as a whitewater rafting guide and bushwalking and adventure guide. His photos grace the pages of multiple adventure magazines, reference books, national parks information boards, brochures, annual reports and even gaming platforms. His outstanding imagery has been regularly filling the pages of Wild Mag since Issue #122 until his final piece in 2026 in Issue #198.

Craig’s energy for photography was unending. No matter how arduous the day’s adventure had been, Craig spent each evening exploring around camp, looking for the perfect angle, climbing to one high point or the next, running across bouldered peaks to catch the right light. Then, he was up before dawn to see what sunrise might bring. He would stand barefoot, midstream, in below-zero temperatures chasing his best shot. He would tromp about in the snow, hands unresponsive in the bitter wind. Or he’d scramble up trees. Or scamper along crumbling cliff edges.

The result is a photographic legacy of incredible depth and diversity, from grand landscapes to the detailed beauty within nature, wild adventure shots to intimate portraits of flora and fauna. This vast and detailed catalogue of Australian landscapes owes its beauty to his talent for composition but also his physical ability to pursue the perfect shot.

One image, one moment, one shot

Craig’s photographs capture the Australian landscape with honesty and naturalness. Everything he did was in-camera. Every published photo is one image, one moment, one shot. His physicality and love of being out in nature was not suited to sitting in front of a computer in the digital age of photography, stacking images or scrubbing out wayward branches or sun flares. He was always about being in the landscape exploring new angles, chasing light and epic views.

He was in fact the finest outdoorsman you could ever meet, the most uncanny natural navigator, and he possessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of Australian adventure hotspots. He had a unique talent for creating amazing trips into wild places, and his love of the Australian landscape was infectious. This passion was something that inspired those he worked with, and the many young guides he mentored, in his more than 35 years working in the outdoor industry. It is also a this passion that informs every one of his images.

And yet, who would know any of this? Craig Fardell, the photographer, was humble. Never one for self-aggrandising. He simply loved nature and was often frustrated by how little credence Australians give to the beauty, diversity and adventure potential in their own backyard. This is the ethos his photography celebrates and by exploring this website you will discover Australia’s beauty, diversity and potential in all his images.