Andy Best

Andy has studied art his entire life starting with sketching, pastels, and oil paints in his Grandmother’s studio as a child. He attended film school at the Art Institute of Portland in the early 2000s then worked as an independent commercial filmmaker turned photographer. All the while working with the biggest brands in the world: Sony, Nike, Adidas, Toyota, Google, T-Mobile, DJI, GoPro, Mountain Hardware, Columbia Sportswear, Leatherman, Eddie Bauer and others. As his career progressed, he began traveling the globe working with tourism boards, speaking, shooting independent documentary films and global marketing campaigns in partnership with many heavy hitters in the outdoor adventure travel space Yeti, Black Diamond, SmugMug, Gerber Gear, GoreTex, Dometic, LaCie, Lonely Planet, Goal Zero and more. This growing body of work led him to his biggest achievement to date, working with National Geographic. Beginning in 2016, he began contributing to National Geographic Adventure proceeding many years working with media outlets like Outside Magazine, BackPacker Magazine, The Guardian, and many online publications. Andy pushed himself to create work with a purpose aligning himself with conservation minded brands and nonprofit organizations like the Nature Conservancy, Sea Legacy, and more. Andy was invited to join the Explorer and Photographer Talent team at National Geographic with the hopes of telling bigger more meaningful stories in the future. 

Currently Andy lives a nomadic lifestyle living full-time on the road with his family of four and their dog. This gives him the ability to watch his little ones grow while he continues to follow his career deep into remote wilderness, deserts, and wild landscapes on assignment. This allows them all to follow a singular passion of enjoying one another and this beautiful planet we live on. Andy hopes to drive home the joy there is in our wild places with the hope for many to fall in love with and take care of our natural world.