Our Team
Yeah, Gidday
(Kia Ora! That's Kiwi for Hello!)
We are an adventurous couple who travels into isolated wilderness areas (such as trekking up high-angle terrain, around steep crevasses, over wind-swept glaciers, into shifting ice caves and over the Southern Alps) in order to photograph and film the most awe-inspiring places on our Earth and bring them into the homes of heart-centered art-lovers worldwide. Welcome!
Get to know Denesa
International award-winning Eco-Conscious Nature Photographer + Filmmaker
Denesa Chan has spent the past four years developing the photographic body of work at the heart of Denesa Chan Photography, which entails camping in sub-zero temperatures near the Arctic Circle, scaling a 14,000 foot mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, sloshing through equatorial rain forests, exploring glacial caves, photographing the world’s rarest penguins in their natural habitat and dangling out of doorless helicopters 15 feet from active lava.
Her attunement to nature started as a tiny girl with a vibrantly open heart and curious mind, living next to the freeway in smog so thick it was equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes a day in urban Los Angeles’ gang territory.
It was there that she learned the transformative power of nature, and how essential it is to our wellbeing.
With a background in Environmental Science, Denesa specializes in creating abstract and representational images based on ambient lighting and un-staged natural elements, which serve as portholes into the heart of exquisite environments all over the world. She delights in bringing the raw intimacy of nature to heart-centered art-lovers through works that inspire joy, adventure, vibrancy and beauty in profound ways. Celebrating our Earth’s majesty and contributing to a sustainable relationship with our planet fills her with incredible joy.
Denesa adores living in the yurt that Gav built from recycled and reclaimed materials in Ashburton, New Zealand and loves puns, dance and Tapatio hot sauce.
Get to know
Gav
World-Record Holder + Survival Specialist + Inventor
Gavin Mulvay, a New Zealand native, is an extremely resourceful survival specialist, engineer, inventor and holder of several world records in wind-powered travel through the world’s harshest environments.
Born and raised in the mountains of New Zealand’s South Island, he has explored wilderness lands on every continent, except South America. Gav has set four world records for 100% wind powered kite buggying (speed record (winning design and engineering), land record and longest unsupported overland journey (twice)) using equipment that he designed and engineered. Along with being a mountaineering guide, Gav is an active member of the Search and Rescue and volunteer fire fighting teams in New Zealand as well as having served, trained, tracked and taught search and rescue and navigational techniques in Antarctica.
Gav provides expert survivalist support for Denesa Chan Photography as well as additional video and behind the scenes footage and photography.
He also co-founded and is lead-inventor for Avian Solutions, making solar-powered pest control solutions for some of the highest tech agricultural and seed bank facilities in the world.
Gav has the personality of a happy dolphin always ready for adventure and loves Sci-Fi, SpaceX, making just about anything with his hands, exploring and being of service.
Together we explore the most majestic parts of our Earth.
