First Exhibition Of Photography By Konrad Bartelski At Wimbledon Fine Art. November 25th To December The 9th 2018 “My Key To The Secret Garden”

Konrad Bartelski  has undertaken many expeditions to the remote and extreme corners of the world, including the Norwegian Arctic North, the volcanoes of Iceland and Japan, the unchartered slopes of Kyrgyzstan, explored the backcountry in the Alps, Northern California, Kashmir and absorbed the majesty of Patagonia.

Konrad’s passion for the vast spaces is inspired by the local knowledge and skills of some most remarkable and hugely experienced mountain guides. “It is these sensitive and imaginative characters who have enabled me to explore the areas of this earth where the perspective and scale of the winter geography is captured at its purest. I can only thank them all for unlocking the doors to their Secret Gardens”

Having been a photographer for more than half a century, Konrad has travelled and trekked many thousands of miles photographing the serenity of nature’s elements exposed to the brutality of winter; seeking to portray the honesty of nature in its purest form.

As a child, Konrad had ambitions to be a downhill ski racer and first competed in the FIS World Cup Ski as a sixteen year old. The following year he raced in Sapporo, Japan in the 1972 Olympic Winter Games. Committed to trying to succeed at the highest level, Konrad also skied at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

In 1981 in Val Gardena, achieved his ambition of seeing the Union Flag flying above a World Cup podium, with his second place in the downhill. Throughout his ski racing career Konrad would always travel with a SLR camera and that has not changed, as every day Konrad skis, he carries his camera in the mountains. “It is when the weather is grey and moody that our planet reveals its most spectacular drama ”

The exhibition will feature Konrad’s large-scale photographs that echo the size and the perspective of the mountain environment.

A contribution from the sales will be made to the Back Up Trust – transforming lives after spinal cord injury.