First Quarter 2016 Images
Take a virtual trip today and check out a selection my new imagery taken between January 1st and March 31st. Locations include Antarctica, India, Laos, California, Washington State, Florida, and Cuba.
New Photos from South Florida
Before heading off to Cuba a few weeks ago, I shot some aerials over southern Florida. Freshwater issues abound in this state. How do you accommodate an increasing and thirsty population and a thriving and powerful agricultural industry while protecting water quality and the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, as well as other increasingly endangered wild areas of the state?
Intentional Art – Havana, Cuba
If you are into gritty abstracts like I am, you would love the ancient layers on the walls of Havana. I’ve spent 40 years photographing professionally around the world, evolving both my style and subjects. If you know me, you know how much I dislike being pigeonholed as a fur and feathers guy. Don’t get me wrong; I love photographing wildlife, but delving deep into my art history background has challenged me intellectually and helped me maintain enthusiasm and creativity for the medium. Getting in close to humanity’s coarse and granular surfaces creates photographic art on a different level.
Havana Street Scenes, Cuba
My first trip to Cuba was in 2001, and the U.S. State Department tried to fine me and the group I was with for supposedly traveling there illegally. Now, President Obama is visiting the country. How times have changed! With it comes the good and the bad, but it’s always fascinating to see a country starting to open up.
Print of the Month March 2016: Sakura
The peak cherry blossom timing is carefully tracked in Japan. People join their friends and families in large numbers at parks, shrines and temples that have “sakura” trees to hold flower-viewing parties. On this trip I had to arrive on location in the wee hours of the morning to have a more relaxed photographing experience. The large trees really are quite magnificent when in full bloom.
Save 20% on any Sakura print purchased this month. They are printed on EPSON Premium Photo Luster paper using archival EPSON Ultrachrome inks, and I hand sign them with a silver acid-free pen. Get more information about my Fine Art prints here.
A Change in Plans: Luang Prabang, Laos
After planning to photograph in Bangladesh after India, I made a management decision and headed off for the lush Luang Prabang Province in Laos–an area and country I had never visited before. At the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers, it is an area of great natural and cultural beauty.
Ranthambore National Park, India
After the crush of the Kumbh in Haridwar, the nature and solitude of Ranthambore National Park was a welcome change. With an area of 400 sq. km encompassing rocky hill crests which descend to open valleys between the Aravalli and Vindhya ranges, dotted with water pools and fruit trees, this park gets its name from the thousand year old fortress, which looms above the forest. Well known for the diurnal activity of tigers, Ranthambore is a very special and unusual area where a natural present meets a historical past.
Ardh Kumbh Mela in Haridwar
My attempt to explain the timing of the Ardh Kumbh Mela:
Haridwar is the place for the well-known Kumbh Mela. Kumbh Mela is a Hindu religious gathering which is celebrated for forty days and is the biggest religious ceremony in the world; “Kumbh Mela” translates to “Festival of Urn”. At any given place, the Kumbh Mela is held once in 12 years. There is a difference of around 3 years between the Kumbh Melas at each of four locations. The exact date is determined according to a combination of zodiac positions of the Jupiter, the Sun and the Moon. The Purna Kumbh Mela, the biggest and the most auspicious fair, occurs every twelve years and is organized in rotation among four places where drops of the sacred nectar spilled over: Allahabad (Prayag), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. A mass pilgrimage for the Hindu community of India, the Kumbh Mela is rumored to be one of the largest congregation of sages, yogis, ascetics, mendicants, men, women and children on the planet. But every sixth year after a Purna Kumbh Mela, an Ardh Kumbh Mela takes place. In the Hindi language the word “Ardh” stands for “half” and “Mela” means “fair”. The “Ardh Kumbh Mela” is called so because it is held at the sixth year and marks the halfway stage between the celebration of the Purna Kumbh Melas every 12 years. The Ardh Mela takes place at Haridwar & Allahabad only. And then there is the mother of all Kumbhs, the Maha Kumbh Mela which happens once every 144 years.
OK, I think they are drinking way too much spilled sacred nectar…
The 2016 Art Wolfe Next-Generation Photographers Grant
The 2016 Art Wolfe Next-Generation Photographers Grant is now taking applicants from professional nature photographers in the early stages of their careers. Recipients will be selected on the basis of skill, artistic excellence and by demonstrating the promise of future achievement.
From July 31 to August 6, 2016, seven successful applicants will attend a six-day workshop at a remote Lodge in Katmai, Alaska, photographing the spectacular wildlife and rugged landscape.
Sponsored by The Luminous Endowment for Photographers and Art Wolfe, Inc., and made possible with the generous support of Rebecca Jones and the Seneca Sawmill Co.
Enter here, Entry deadline: March 31, 2016
2015 Year in Review
Some years are publishing years, some are traveling, 2015 was for reshaping the business—a necessity in the ever-changing photography industry. I closed my downtown Seattle gallery and launched this website, focusing my core business online and allowing me the ability to concentrate on other projects, of which there are many.
TV: Tales by Light aired in Australia & New Zealand
All the filming that I did in 2014 with Abraham Joffe and the Untitled Film Works crew—in East Africa, Papua New Guinea, Alaska, and here in Seattle—finally came to fruition. Tales by Light is a joint Canon Australia and National Geographic Channel production & I hope it comes to the US soon!
As for Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge, it continues to air in broadcast markets worldwide.
Travel & Photography: The year was bookended by East Africa
While travel slowed somewhat in 2015, I still managed trips to Tanzania (twice), Kenya, Yellowstone National Park (twice), Antarctica, India, Bali, Japan, Iceland, Washington State, Alaska, Svalbard, California, and Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. The final expedition of the year was to the Danakil Basin of Ethiopia.
Presentations, Gallery Shows, and Articles
I lectured at, among other places, Florida’s Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Fine Art, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Portland’s OMSI, and at #OPTIC2015 in New York. Human Canvas took over the Rotella Gallery in Soho for the month of November. DPreview.com published several well-received articles on my experiences photographing emperor penguins, humpback whales, and Iceland.
Books: A year of foreign editions
The Art of the Photograph in Spanish
Earth Is My Witness in French and German by National Geographic
Vanishing Act in USA, German & French
Awards & Honoraria
Earth Is My Witness garnered several publishing awards, including an IBPA Benjamin Franklin and an Independent Publisher. As for moi, I was named honorary chair of Washington Wild.
Top Blog Posts of 2015
Why I Do What I Do
Pretty in Pink: Springtime in Japan
Yes on 1401: Save Animals Facing Extinction (YES- it passed in November!)
Technique: Creating Graphic Images
Revealing Africa’s Major Elephant Ivory Poaching Hotspots
Travels To The Edge Music in the Japan Episode
Fall in Wyoming
Technique: Creating Abstract Images
International Cheetah Day
Colors of the Year 2016
Now on to 2016: new books! Museum shows in Europe! Exciting travel and learning opportunities!
