Zach Flood
Episode 03
Zach Flood is a geologist and photographer from Reno, Nevada, living in Vancouver, Canada. Zach is the CEO of Kenorland Minerals and a passionate explorer with a love for nature and obsession with adventure.
TS
You're a Reno man living in BC. What brought you to Canada?
ZF
I went to high school on Vancouver Island and have been living in British Columbia ever since. In Canada, rather than being surrounded in every direction by large population centers, we’re blessed with a huge amount of wilderness.
I love being so close to the vast landscape of natural beauty that exists beyond our society. We're right on the doorstep. Everything to the north is relatively uninhabited. That feels quite liberating.
TS
When did you first develop an interest in geology and how did that progress into a career?
ZF
It comes from my dad. Growing up with him canvassing the globe for mineral resources, I was exposed to it from a young age. As a teenager, I worked out in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and the Tien Shan Gold Belt in Northern China.
From there, I went on to study geology and earth sciences. I find the fundamental science of how the earth forms to be fascinating. I didn't want to be trapped indoors doing something mundane for the rest of my life. It was a good way for me to stay in a career that was oriented around nature and could take me around the world.
TS
How has your photography developed alongside your work as a geologist?
ZF
I have always felt more than a desire, almost an obligation, to capture some of the most beautiful remote environments that genuinely inspired me when I saw them. It's about saving a record of things I've seen through my eyes that I felt were perfect.
Nature is perfect because it's just the way it is. It's an incredible feeling to visit a place that's been untouched by mankind, exactly the way it's been for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years.
There is something calming, centering and serene about staring into a landscape like that. I have always felt the need to immortalize that view, either for myself, or so other people could look at it and feel that same sense of peace.
TS
What have you learned from the people and cultures that you’ve met along the way?
ZF
There are different types of traveling, I guess. For me, it has always been about exploring far off the beaten path. Mineral exploration really guides you into some pretty remote locations where you have the opportunity to interact with local indigenous populations.
I've been fortunate to work alongside people from many different cultures, from Central Asia to Africa, in Northern Canada and the Arctic, down to South America and the Andes. One thing that has really struck me, and it sounds cliche, is that we really are all very similar to each other, no matter how far apart we seem.
TS
How did you make the leap to starting your own mineral exploration company?
ZF
I used to get out as far as I could go into the wilderness to explore as much of the world as possible. I wanted to challenge myself in extremely difficult situations in nature. Once I felt I had gone far enough, I decided to explore the next frontier of my career. That was really the catalyst for going off on my own.
TS
Can you tell us about your search for gold in Alaska?
ZF
The search for gold is not easy. There's a lot of ups n’ downs and peaks n’ valleys when you go down this path. We are looking for the proverbial treasure that mother nature has hidden somewhere out there. It’s like a giant treasure hunt. At the end of the day, it's extremely fun and thrilling, but it’s also very dangerous, expensive, and high risk.
There are no guarantees, so it’s pointless if you don’t enjoy the ride. The odds of finding gold are so incredibly slim. I think that's actually good metaphor for life. A lot of times you’re not going to find what you're looking for. You gotta find things along the way.
As my old man used to say, quoting the title of a book, "the situation is hopeless, but it's not serious".
TS
What advice do you have for young people who aspire to a similar path?
ZF
When my father passed away in 2015, it made me realize that we only have so much time on this planet. You really don't have anything to lose by trying to do something that you think might not even be possible. The only downside is maybe you fail, and you learn from it.
I had this realization that we all have an opportunity to create something on our own, that is bigger than just ourselves and bigger than just working for someone else day-in-day-out.
TS
We've often heard you talk about the Stoke. Can you explain what that means?
ZF
The search for the stoke is no different than the search for gold, the search for love, or anything else. You are ultimately going to find what you are looking for during the search, not at the end.
It represents that which we are all hoping to achieve in life, whatever that may be for each of us. It is not something you can objectively define. We continue to seek it new every day and it’s all around us. You just have to open your eyes.
TS
Can you tell us about this image of yours that has become an inspirational symbol of new frontiers for Time Studio?
ZF
Yeah, that’s Ketchum, Idaho. I think Idaho is just God's country, you know? I was just trying to capture God on the medium format.