TITLE: The Roof Runner

Carsickness plagued me when I was a child (it still does). While my siblings were able to read or play video games on long road trips, I always had to look out of the window to keep from being sick. To fight the boredom I would project myself out of the car and into the landscape as it passed by. Often, I would imagine myself as a runner, crossing rooftops and hurtling from building to building at high speeds. In an age when electronic entertainment continues to push opportunities for idle imagination out of our lives, I wanted to recreate this childhood fantasy.

AUTHOR: Michael Snyder (United States)

Michael O. Snyder is a photographer, filmmaker, and environmental scientist who uses his combined knowledge of visual storytelling and conservation to create narratives that connect people to the other-than-human-world and drive social change. As founder of Interdependent Pictures, he has directed films in the Arctic, the Amazon, the Himalaya, and East Africa.

His work has been featured by National Geographic, The Guardian, VOX, Roads & Kingdoms, The Washington Post, High Country News, Condé Nast, NPR, Political Science & Politics, and Social Documentary. His films have been selected to over 40 festivals and have taken home numerous awards.

Snyder grew up on 12 acres of woods in Appalachia and spent much of his early adulthood exploring the remote corners of this planet. These experiences set in motion an ongoing love affair with the wildness of this world and desire to re-connect people to it. Snyder’s projects are often built through partnerships with nonprofit organizations and harness the power of positive storytelling in order to shift the narrative about what it means to live well on this planet without destroying it.

​He holds an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, a Blue Earth Photographer, a Fearless Photographer, and the co-founder of two environmental organizations. An adventurer at heart, Mike has hiked the Appalachian and John Muir Trails, cycled across Europe, and ridden trains across Siberia. Originally from a small town in Appalachia, Snyder has lived around the world including long-term stints in Scotland, Japan, Hawaii, and New Zealand. He currently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife and son.