Naona "Peaches" Wallin

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Artist Bio

Naona “Peaches” Wallin is an award-winning nature photographer who lives in the remote island community of Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is in the southern southeast region of Alaska, nestled deep in the Tongass National Forest, part of the largest intact temperate rainforest left on Earth! The Tongass earns the title of rainforest because it receives more than 13 feet of rain a year. Peaches enjoys the challenge of creating outdoor images in any weather.

As a nature photographer, she finds time spent in the field invaluable and considers nature her classroom. This has been true since she was a child growing up in the southeast Alaskan “bush.” For three years, she lived off-grid in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, a location only accessible by boat or floatplane. She describes life in the bush as “revolving around your ability to observe nature: the weather, tides, and seasons.”

While learning to read the landscape, Peaches formed a strong bond with Mother Nature, a connection that continues to influence her artistic process and practice today. As a child, she was fascinated by the surrounding scenery, from an awe-inspiring sunset to the wonder of rain splattering on the calm ocean surface. Her childhood admiration for the beauty of the Alaskan wild grew into a nature-inspired artistic intuition. Being in nature grounds her in the present. She sees beautiful imagery everywhere, and her creativity comes alive. Being raised in the Alaskan bush gave Peaches a grand sense of adventure. Two of her favorite “bucket list” experiences were photographing polar bears in the remote arctic village of Kaktovik and a doors-off helicopter tour in 2018 over Kilauea Volcano’s east rift zone eruption, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Her images have been published in Alaska Magazine and featured in juried exhibitions across the lower 48 states, Alaska, and Hawaii. Three of her photograph’s are currently included in two Juried exhibition’s traveling throughout Alaska: Alaska Positive and Rarefied Light, Her awards include a solo exhibit at the Main Street Gallery titled Radiance in the Rainforest: Capturing the Northern Lights in Southeast Alaska, an off-grid wilderness experience as a Resident Artist at the Chulitna Creative Residency in Lake Clark National Park, Judges Choice-Scapes in North American Nature Photographers Association’s NANPA Showcase and Directors Choice in Art Fluent’s annual exhibit Into the Wild. Her past awards include an artist residency at Ernest Gruening State Historical Park near Juneau, Alaska, and Best Landscape in the AlaskaWILD Exhibition. As an active member of Ketchikan’s thriving art community, Peaches is a featured artist on local art walks, an exhibition juror, and an art fair vendor. Her goal is to bring people closer to nature through art. Peaches’ artwork reflects her passion for “photographing wildlife and wildlands few people see firsthand.”

Artist Website

Artist Statement

My work focuses on nature photography, with a particular emphasis on wildlife and remote wilderness landscapes. It is a genre rooted in deep observation, emotional presence, and a commitment to capturing the quiet, often unseen moments of life in the natural world. My photographic practice is not just about aesthetics or documentation. It’s about conveying a lived, felt experience. The wilderness is not just a subject for me; it is a collaborator, a teacher, and a source of inspiration that has shaped every aspect of my artistic voice.

This connection began in childhood when my family lived off-grid for three years in the Tongass National Forest. Our remote homestead—accessible only by boat or floatplane—was surrounded by old-growth rainforest and the rhythms of the untamed natural world. That life required us to be in constant conversation with our surroundings: reading the weather, tracking tides, and observing seasonal shifts. It was in those formative years that I learned to see, hear, and feel the land in a way that has carried into my creative process. That early relationship with nature taught me that stillness, patience, and attentiveness reveal the most profound beauty, and those same principles guide my photography today.

Although photography is a visual medium, my process is deeply sensory and intuitive. Long before I press the shutter, I spend time grounding myself—listening to the rustle of wings overhead, the breath of a whale surfacing nearby, or spend hours admiring the star-filled sky, waiting for the Northern Lights to appear. I allow these sensory impressions to guide where I place my attention. Over time, I’ve come to trust these instincts; they lead me to compositions that hold emotional resonance, not just visual interest.

Each photograph I create is the result of this immersive engagement with place. My camera becomes a tool not just to capture what I see but to interpret what I feel. In this way, my work serves as a bridge between the outer world of wild nature and the inner landscape of memory, emotion, and wonder. I am especially drawn to moments of quiet magic—scenes where light, weather, and movement align in a way that reveals something timeless and sacred. These are the moments I try to hold and share.

Ultimately, my work exists at the intersection of fine art, environmental storytelling, and sensory experience. Through my images, I hope to awaken a sense of reverence, stillness, and belonging in the viewer. I want people to feel not only what I saw but also the awe, intimacy, and presence I experienced in that moment. My photography is a way of honoring the wild and inviting others to create or remember their own connection to it.