Ian has been behind the lens of some of the BBC’s biggest nature programmes, and has worked with David Attenborough in some of the earth’s most remote wildernesses on series such as Life in the Freezer, awarded a BAFTA for his camerawork, Blue Planet, awarded an Emmy, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet.

Now he features in front of the lens, in a portrait entitled ‘my focus’, taken by Alastair Sopp at Gribben Head near Fowey. This is one of Ian’s favourite places in Cornwall and where he spent long days filming a pair of peregrines as part of his upcoming Cornish wildlife film which displays the wonders of Cornwall’s wildlife and wild places like never before.

Ian McCarthy was born in 1956 and grew up in the suburbs of northwest London. Watching a wildlife film on television one day he suddenly realised that someone must be behind the camera working it. He knew instantly that was what he wanted to do when he grew up; he was nine at the time.
Throughout his childhood Ian would visit Cornwall every year and would wander for hours on his own hoping for the chance of seeing a grey seal, peregrine falcons, ravens or maybe even a dolphin.

Ian McCarthy says,

“As a child I loved Cornwall with a passion but now I live here, and I still love Cornwall. Cornwall is where sea, sky and land meet, where I can still feel the rhythms of wild nature in the pulse of the tides, in winter storms battering against the shore or the wild ringing cry of a peregrine falcon as she displays over her ancestral cliffs. Cornwall is where my love of nature really began”.
Continued…

Chris Betty, Communications Officer for Cornwall Wildlife Trust says,

“Ian McCarthy was guest speaker at Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Discovery Day event in 2015, where he inspired our audience and we are thrilled that he is now supporting our My Wild Life campaign. Sixteen personalities have now featured in this campaign explaining in very personal terms what it is about the Cornish landscape that inspires them”.

The My Wild Life posters can be seen at bus stops and other locations throughout Cornwall.