Ben Moon: Surf, Survival, and Life on the Road

The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show

Chase Jarvis

Celebrity, Art, Career, Creativity, Money, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Education, Careers, Writing, Interview, Investment, Influencer, Business, Photography

4.8 • 641 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2020

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might know Ben from his adventure and lifestyle photography or his beautiful films. Surviving cancer in his 20s gradually shifted his artistic focus from capturing the pursuit of adventure to telling nuanced human stories that have inspired and impacted millions. Most notably, his personal story battling colorectal cancer and his special relationship with his dog Denali, which he shares in his beautiful viral short film, now turned book, Denali.

ABOUT BEN

Ben Moon is an adventure, lifestyle, and portrait photographer whose vibrant images have graced the pages of Patagonia catalogues for the past 18 years. In recent years, he has shifted his focus to filmmaking. In 2015, he founded his production company, Moonhouse as a platform for collaboration with friends and creatives to bring a wide range of thought-provoking, impactful and cinematically beautiful stories to life on-screen. As a director, Ben’s unique ability to connect with his subjects paired with the talent and experience for visual storytelling allow him to bring a high level of emotional and visual depth to his films. Surviving colorectal cancer in his 20s inspired Ben to develop a deeper connection to others and the natural world and gradually shifted his artistic focus from capturing the pursuit of adventure to telling nuanced human stories that have inspired and impacted millions worldwide. Most notably, he told his own story about his journey with colorectal cancer and his special relationship with his dog, Denali in the viral short film, Denali. Ben currently resides on the Oregon coast where, in addition to his film and photo work, he is building a house and just published a personal memoir called "Denali: A Man, a Dog, and the Friendship of a Lifetime" on Penguin Books about his journey with cancer and his life with Denali.

Enjoy!

Today's episode is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Let me take you back to 2015 just for a second.
0:05.0	I woke up one morning to text on my phone and I clicked the link that my friend had sent and it linked to a seven and a half minute film that left an immediate and indelible mark on me for a
0:26.2	couple reasons, one of which it was from someone that I'd known, a man named Ben Moon.
0:33.6	If you're not familiar with Ben and his work, Ben's an adventure and lifestyle photographer.
0:45.3	And we've been in the same industry for years and years and had paid our respect to one another through different venues and had some mutual friends. But this particular video that I watched this morning in 2015 was about Ben's story beating cancer, only to find that his dog had subsequently been diagnosed with cancer.
1:04.1	And this video was such an amazing little journey, a journey of Ben's, the support that his dog provided for Ben
1:14.0	through his rough patch and then the flipping of those scripts. And I watched that movie,
1:21.2	that seven-minute movie so many times. And it brings me great joy to now, a number of years later, to finally have been on the show,
1:30.8	not just to share his story of surviving cancer in his 20s, but to have him share his life
1:39.7	journey of, you know, growing up as a shy, introverted, self-described, nerdy kid to take a number of risks to sort of defy the odds and pursue his passion, which ultimately came as a photographer, something that he didn't realize early in his life was right there
2:02.0	for him. And he talks about unpacking this passion and how he listened to his intuition to
2:07.6	find himself as one of the top adventure sports photographers. Now some 18 or 20 years and he's been
2:14.4	featured in all the places you might expect, Patagonia and across the outdoor
2:18.7	industry.
2:20.5	But this story today, our conversation with Ben, we do go back, you know, 15 or so years.
2:26.3	We know a lot of the same folks, so there's a great camaraderie and kinship, but his story
2:30.3	of his battle with rectal cancer, colon cancer, and his relationship with his dog
2:36.6	Donali is going to provide some insight and impact.
2:43.2	So I'm going to stop talking, get out of the way, and let Ben Moon inspire you with his
2:48.0	creativity, his entrepreneurship, and the challenge that he's faced in his life,
2:53.2	and how he's overcome them to inspire us today. Before we do, just a super quick word from our
2:59.3	sponsor, and then we'll get into the show with Ben. Hey, before we get into today's episode,
	...

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