Christopher Burkett, born in 1951, surrenders his talent to the world of nature depicting colors and patterns (that his photographic eye sees in woods and landscapes). He joined a Christian religious brotherhood in the early 1970s and, 5 years later, first became interested in photography as a form of spiritual expression. Over the next 20 years, he gradually perfected his photography be the means through which he could express his innermost feelings and inspiration.

The purpose of my photography is to provide a brief, if somewhat veiled, glimpse into that clear and brilliant world of light and power. To the extent that these photographs help show that way, is the extent to which these images succeed.

Christopher Burkett Photography

Christopher Burkett Photography
He uses large format photographic films (most common large formats are 4×5 and 8×10 inches) and prints his work by hand onto conventional photographic materials.

I believe there is room in the photographic world for both digital and optical printing. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. But to me, the integrity of the photographic image, (and it‘s direct connection to the original scene), is best preserved using conventional optical printing methods. The very piece of film that was at the original scene is put into the enlarger, projected onto a piece of paper, creating the print which you see before you.

Christopher Burkett Photography

Christopher Burkett Photography
The 2 most well-known books written by Christopher are: “Resplendent Ligh” - 156 pages and “Intimations of Paradis”- after a travel within America with his wife Ruth. This second book was awarded by The North American Book Dealers Exchange. Burkett is a recognized national expert in printing Cibachrome (Ilfochrome), by virtue of his use of sophisticated and unique masking techniques; therefore, he also has taught several workshops sponsored by the Friends of Photography and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.
Christopher Burkett Photography

Christopher Burkett Photography

Tags: Christopher Burkett, nature photographer, nature photography, nature patterns, nature colors

Wynn Bullock was born Apr 18 1902, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Wynn Bullock consecrated the major live part to the universal photographic knowledge of nature and of relationships stabled between nature and humans. He opened the doors of abstract art and the use of symbolism. Bullock felt that his photographs were more than surface reflections, that they portrayed the interaction of “space and time” defined by light.
But before that, he started his life as a concert tenor. While studying music in Paris he started to be attracted into visual arts.

Cover of the Book “Wynn Bullock: Master of Photography”

Since 1938 he seriously began to study photography. From 1946-1967, Bullock worked as a commercial photographer. In 1957, Bullock won a medal from the Salon of International Photography. After that, he was recognized by the Professional Photographers Association of California.
After his commercial photography period, he dedicated himself to the philosophical meaning of images for what his became famous soon enough. About the same time he started teaching photography and never left this job until he died in 1975.

Bullock‘s work is included in the Family of Man exhibition, and in the following collections: the Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House, the Whitney Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, ICP in New York, the Royal Photographic Society of London and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The “Family of Man” is a vast exhibition consisting of over 500 photos that depicted life, love and death in 68 countries.
From his Book (Wynn Bullock: Master of Photography): “The penetrating, enigmatic, and almost mystical nature of his images is accomplished through formal beauty matched with provocative imagery. Bullock wanted to jolt people to new heights of visual and self-awareness by encouraging them to relate to nature directly, unencumbered by traditional modes of visual and abstract thinking. His dramatic photographs have been characterized as showing the inner essence of nature, powerfully reflecting its mysterious beauty on a level extending beyond the everyday.”

Tags: fameous photographer, photographer, abstract photographer, nature photographer, BW photographer, symbolism, nature and human, Wynn Bullock, Master of Photography

Anna-Lou Leibovitz was born in Westbury, Connecticut. She is “a photographer of celebrities who has herself become a celebrity.” For the past 25 years, no photographer has delivered more photographs of the people we most want to see than has Annie Leibovitz. Her pictures are recognizable for their bright colors, intense lighting, and above all, for unique and surprising poses.

During high school Leibovitz played guitar and wrote music and was the head of the school folksinging club. She also developed an interest in painting and attended the San Francisco Art Institute, beginning in 1967. She considered a career as a painting instructor.
During a vacation from school, Leibovitz visited her family, then living in the Philippines. She and her mother took a trip to Japan, where she bought a camera and began taking pictures.

In 1970 a friend suggested that she take her prints to Rolling Stone magazine, which was headquartered in San Francisco, then, by 1973, when she was only 23 years old, Leibovitz had become chief photographer for Rolling Stone; she stayed with the magazine for ten more years.

During her years with Rolling Stone and in her work for other magazines, Leibovitz photographed many of the biggest names in entertainment, including keyboardist-singer Stevie Wonder, rocker Bruce Springsteen, film director Woody Allen, country songbird Dolly Parton, pop singer Linda Ronstadt, actress Meryl Streep, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and action film star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Since 1983, Leibovitz has worked as a featured portrait photographer for Vanity Fair. Perhaps her most controversial photograph was for a 1992 Vanity Fair cover; on it appeared actress Demi Moore–nude and very pregnant.
1983 also saw her first one-person show and her first book, ‘Annie Leibovitz: Photographs.’ The following year she was named ‘Photographer of the Year’ by the American Society of Magazine Photographers.
In 1987 she produced the ‘Portraits’ campaign for American Express, which gained her not only the 1988 Clio Award for a US National print campaign, but also the Campaign of the Decade Award from Advertising Age (1987).
In 1991 Leibovitz was honored with a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
In 1996, the Atlantic Committee named Leibovitz the official photographer for the US Olympic Team.
In 1999 she was made a member of the Art Directors Club ‘Hall of Fame’.
In A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005, Leibovitz publishes celebrity photos (among them Johnny Cash, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jack Nicholson) as well as portraits of family members and her longtime friend, Susan Sontag.

In 2006, she spoke for the Earth Day: “My hope is that we continue to nurture the places that we love, but that we also look outside our immediate worlds, to the foreign and the far away.”
A complete article, containing 1,634 words about Annie (her work and personal life).

Tags: Annie Leibovitz, portrait photography, celebrity photography, demi more

Nina Berman (borned in New York and graduated School of Journalism) has been photographing the political and cultural landscape of the United States for more than 20 years.
Also, she takes pictures for numerous publications including National Geographic, Time, New York Times Magazine, London Telegraph, Paris Match, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Stern and GEO. From 1991 until today she had a number of 28 exhibitions around the world and counting.

Recently she has gained the World Press Photo Award in Portraits with a picture from the “Redux Pictures for People” – “Wounded US Marine returns home from Iraq to marry”. This shoot was taken unde a project called “Purple Hearts”. The Purple Hearts project is a series of photographic portraits and interviews with American soldiers who were wounded in Iraq. The pictures were taken in soldiers homes, in military hospitals and on Army bases across the United States.

“I’ve been a documentary photographer since 1987 working in a dozen countries including Afghanistan, Bosnia, India and Vietnam. But most of my time has been spent traveling the USA trying to understand the American Way of Life.”

Other awards she received:
• National Women’s Political Caucus Award – 1998
• Pictures of the Year – 1999, 1998, 1993
• Communications Arts Annual – 2000, 1999, 1997
• American Photography Annual 2004, 2002
• Days Japan International Photojournalism Award 2004
• World Press Photo Foundation Award 2005
• Open Society Institute Documentary Photography Fund 2005
• New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (NYFA) 2006

Tags: world press photo, nina berman, nina berman photography, new york times, geo, national geographic, redux pictures, sports illustrated, portrait photographer, nina berman potraits, Nina Berman Redux Pictures for People

Peter Read Miller has been photographing the “sporting life” for over 30 years. He is also an acclaimed portrait photographer, and a member of Canon’s select Explorers of Light program. He is currently a staff photographer for “Spots Illustrated”, but his images have appeared on over 100 Sport Illustrated covers.
He tooked pictures of numerous world famous athletes including: Muhammad Ali, Joe Montana, Magic Johnson, Ivan Ivankov, Renaldo, John Wooden, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Barry Bonds, John Elway, Gabriella Reece, Shaquille O’Neal and Kathy Ireland.
He also shot advertising for Nike, Adidas, Visa, Coca-Cola, Footlocker, Eastman Kodak, ABC Television, Panasonic, and the National Football League.

Peter has been an instructor at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Rich Clarkson’s Sports Photography Workshop in Colorado Springs. Peter has also been a guest speaker at UCLA, San Jose State, the University of Tennessee and The Eastman Kodak Corporate Headquarters in Rochester, NY. Peter lives in Manhattan Beach, California. One of the last aceavements of Peter is The Dave Boss Award of Excellence Photographer of the Year from The Pro Football Hall of Fame. Also, his award-winning photo of San Diego Charger LaDainian Tomlinson appeared in photography magazines as part of Canon’s “Exactly what I was thinking” campaign.

It’s important for me to shoot images that communicate. At major events now, there are 50 to 100 people on the sidelines, shooting the same action. I want to get an image that really stands out.

You can visit his homepage here.

Tags: Photographic Workshop, Peter Read Miller, Sports Photographer, Photographer, famous photographer, Spots Illustrated

Since 1985, Richardson has worked as a freelancer for the National Geographic Society. His story number 21 under National Geographic Society was published in March 2006.
Even if he worked for other worldwide Photography Centres, this is what for he became famous. He has lectured in the National Geographic Society’s “Masters of Photography” series four times and offered intensive travel photography seminars for The Maine Photographic Workshops. In his case, it was the first time that the National Geographic Society has allowed an outside journalist to document its behind-the-scenes editorial process.

He describes himself as a journalism photographer, focusing on the lives of people who shape or are affected by a particular place.
Richardson started experimenting with his father’s box camera on his parents’ farmstead in north central Kansas. He developed his photography skills while working for Student Publications at Kansas State University during the 1960s, and, from 1970 to 1981, he worked at the Topeka Capital-Journal. Then, at the Denver Post, from 1981 to 1984, he became a special assignment photographer.
Special Recognition Award for World Understanding (from Nikon) was given to him for his documentary photographs of Kansas people and places.
In 1979, Richardson published his first book, “High School USA“, a three-year study of adolescence in Rossville High School (a photo essay classic), followed by another 6 books.
More information about his work and awards at Venice School of Photography.

“You have these people there who are dedicated to the place, who understand it, who know how to make community happen and when they virtually nothing to make it out of and they are very talented at being a community.”

Tags: photographer, jim richardson, national geographic, people, journalism, workshop, documentary, kansas

Ansel Easton Adams (1902-1984) was an American photographer credited with developing the ‘zone system technique‘ (a method of concentrating light on negatives to control the look of finished pictures) and the ‘theory of visualization‘ or ‘previsualization’ (the act of measuring a scene’s light to imagine a finished photo). Basicaly, he captured nature in black and white and became famous for his photo series of the Yosemite Valley in California. More than that, he became an environmentalist, and his photographs are a record of what many national parks were like.

He also wrote technical books defining and developing his theories, and later on, many photoalbums were published in his memory. Some of these are:

# The Camera
# The Negative
# The Print
% Born Free and Equal
% Polaroid Land Photography
% Ansel Adams: In Color
% Photographs of the Southwest
% The National Park Photographs
% America’s Wilderness
% Ansel Adams: The Spirit of Wild Places

Ansel Adams received a number of awards during his lifetime, and this is a short list of them:

• Doctor of Arts, Harvard University
• Doctor of Arts, Yale University
• Conservation Service Award, Department of Interior – 1968
• Presidential Medal of Freedom – 1980
• Mount Ansel Adams – 1985
• Ansel Adams Wilderness – 1985

Also, Adams was one of the founders of the magazine Aperture.

Art is both love and friendship, and understanding; the desire to give…It is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. – Ansel Adams, 1937

Representing the Work of Ansel Adams
The full archive of Ansel Adams’ work can be found at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson.