For London-based photographer Conor Courtney, whose work routinely uses natural highlights and deep contrasts to emphasize parts of his compositions, his signature technique emerged from some missteps he took during his education. “When I was at the University of Washington (UW), I underexposed all my images by two or three stops due to my inexperience,” Courtney recalls. “Most of the time, my images were too dark, but at times, I had perfectly exposed the highlights of the scene. I instinctually started looking for these patches of light and high-contrast environments, and I’ve since leaned into that high contrast in my work.” Courtney grew up in a creative family—his father and brother are both designers—and he attributes many conversations on aesthetics throughout his childhood with developing his visual senses. While studying journalism and environmental studies at UW, he worked as a photographer for its newspaper The Daily of the University of Washington, capturing images of the university’s football and basketball games; this led him to fully pursue photojournalism with an internship at the Journal Star in Peoria, Illinois, and a program at the Danish School of Media and Journalism. “Just after graduating, I started working as an assistant to photographer Sofia Jaramillo, which blossomed into producing, managing social media, and assisting and editing for her,” Courtney explains. “Now, as I’m a social media executive at cycling brand Rapha, these experiences help me inform the direction of the brand on socials.” From his journalistic background to creating content for social media, storytelling and a passion for environmentalism remain the main drivers behind Courtney’s work. “Part of what makes me so thrilled to be working at Rapha is the brand’s unique focus on storytelling,” he says, “and if I do my job well, I can help convince people to spend more time on bikes. Outdoor visual storytelling can have a fundamentally positive impact on our planet, and I want to play a part in pushing it forward.”