“We can’t expect black people or anyone else to protect or advocate for spaces that they’ve rarely had the opportunity to experience and enjoy.” – Dudley Edmondson
It’s incredibly rare to meet a black person who has spent time in the farthest and wildest reaches on earth. Wildlife photographer/cinematographer/bird watcher/fly-angler/published author and mountaineer Dudley Edmondson has been to many of those places. Dudley is quick to say that he finds wild places and the company of wildlife more comforting than in the company of some humans. He claims he is far more comfortable in the Arctic wilderness, armed only with a camera, than he is around humans who are sometimes “unpredictable and dangerous”.
I reached out to Dudley after reading his first book Black and Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places (2006). In this book he shares the lived experiences of 20 black and brown folks who work and recreate in overwhelmingly white outdoor spaces. During our very first conversation I began to feel a deep soul connection with Dudley. He and I are passionate about many of the same things. For example, his love for being in wild, natural spaces, his passion for protecting those spaces and his lifelong mission to get black and brown people outdoors. Dudley loves educating and inspiring folks like us. His passion for living a life outdoors and capturing wildlife on film shines through his otherwise quiet, soft-spoken demeanor.
I recently called Dudley at his home on Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota. We had our usual conversation about birds, fly-fishing, people we have in common and we shared stories of wild places we enjoy. I waited for just the right moment before asking him if I could write a short piece on him and his amazing adventures for this paper. His immediate response was predictable—a surprised and slightly nervous chuckle followed with, “Why me?”
Although Dudley has been interviewed and thrust into the public spotlight numerous times throughout his career, he was surprised by my request. I had to convince him that his stories and lived experiences as a black person who has spent the majority of his life in predominately white outdoor spaces will never grow old. Those stories need to be shared, especially with our black readers. He was pleasantly shocked to learn that we had a black newspaper.
Dudley was born and raised in Ohio but his love for photography, birds and birding led him to Minnesota after high school. He talked about falling in love at a young age with being outdoors and the disappointment in not finding black role models. However, their absence never deterred him from pursuing a career outdoors. His move north launched his career and a life behind the camera to some of the most beautiful, unforgiving places on the planet like the Arctic Circle.
Minneapolis is also where he was introduced to fly-fishing by another black fly angler. Although that was decades ago, Dudley is reluctant to call himself a serious fly-fisherman. He still loves to chase fish in the small streams near his home with a fly rod and chase smallmouth bass in bigger water on those rare occasions when he fishes. He shared that fly fishing is not his strong suit and trips are few and far between these days. However, he misses going and especially misses teaching others how to cast a fly.
At another point along his journey, he became a skilled mountaineer and was on the Mount Denali Climbing Team. Now at the ripe age of 64, his climbing days and trips to extremely remote places are over. Dudley is now an award-winning film maker and the author of three books. His second book What’s that Flower? was published in 2013, and People the Planet Needs Now: Voices for Justice, Science, and a Future Promise was published in2025. That book received the 2025 National Outdoor Book Awards Silver Medal in the Nature and Environmental category. He is also an award-winning cinematographer for the documentary Blackwaters: Brotherhood in the Wild. It’s about a small group of African-American men who traveled to the Arctic Circle and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.Dudley shared stories of coming close to death on those adventures and nearly losing his camp during an unexpected storm. Still, he speaks of those experiences with a deep sense of reverence.
He claims that the vastness of the wilderness is the draw and uses adjectives like scary, sobering and unnerving to describe his feelings when there. He describes the wilderness as a place where everything is new, with no roads or signs of other humans for millions of acres. A place where survival is always foremost on your mind. A place where you can see storms coming for miles away yet get surprised by them. Places where nature doesn’t care about your personal safety. Dudley prefers the empty vastness and sometimes dangerous situations you can find yourself in, over what can sometimes be encountered in urban places.
Dudley now spends much of his time working on his next book and photographing and filming birds that visit his backyard feeder and water feature. He is also constantly thinking about and working on ways to reach, educate and inspire black and brown people to go outdoors and enjoy nature. Dudley has been to some of the most beautiful places on earth armed only with a camera. He pursued his dream of becoming a wildlife photographer without a mentor who looked like him to show him how. He was a trailblazer and trailblazers are full of timeless, inspiring stories.
“Bob”, he said, “Remember, we can’t expect black people or anyone else for that matter to protect or advocate for spaces that they’ve rarely had the opportunity to experience and enjoy,” We need more black and brown faces in America’s wild places. We need more amazing people like Dudley Edmondson.