Art Wolfe

Not to be confused with Art Wolff.

Art Wolfe

Art Wolfe is an American photographer, television host, conservationist, photography teacher and artist. He is most notably known for his color photographs of wildlife, nature and cultures.

Photography career

Wolfe's parents were both commercial artists in Seattle, Washington. Wolfe graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington. Within four years of graduation, Wolfe had done assignments for National Geographic magazine and produced his first photo book documenting Northwest Indian baskets.

Wolfe's approach to nature photography combines elements of photojournalism and art photography. Wolfe lists his major influences as Ernst Haas and Eliot Porter. Wolfe has released more than 65 photo books and instructional videos of photographic techniques. The U.S. Postal Service has used Wolfe's photographs on two stamps.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and serves on the advisory boards for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Nature’s Best Foundation, Bridges to Understanding, and is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).

Wolfe's latest endeavor is the public television series "Art Wolfe's Travels to the Edge". In the series Art shares his knowledge about the world around him and explores different places and cultures. "Travels to the Edge" is distributed by American Public Television. Art's influences were his parents because both were photographers.

Image manipulation

In his 1994 book, Migrations, Wolfe digitally manipulated photos, including cloning to create additional animals in ensemble shots. In his public lectures Wolfe acknowledged the manipulations, but maintained that they were minimal - such as removal of a few animals falling out of pattern in a huge herd, or filling small gaps with clones. The manipulations, which he calls "digital art", were discussed in the book's introduction, "Since this is an art book and not a treatise on natural history, I find the use of digitalization perfectly acceptable, and in a small percentage of photographs I have enhanced the patterns of animals much as a painter would do on a canvas." Art Wolfe

Books

• On Puget Sound (2007, Sasquatch Books, Seattle)
• Vanishing Act (2005, Bulfinch Press, NYC)
• Smithsonian Answer Book: Cats (2004, Smithsonian Books, Washington, DC)
• Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky (2003, Wildlands Press, Seattle)
• Animal Action ABC (2003, Handprint Books, NYC)
• High Himalaya (2001, Mountaineers Books, Seattle)
• Africa (2001, Wildlands Press, Seattle)
• The Living Wild (2000, Wildlands Press, Seattle)
• Rainforests of the World: Water, Fire, Earth and Air (1998, Crown Publishers, NYC)
• Tribes (1997, Clarkson N. Potter, NYC)
• Wasser: Welten zwischen Himmel und Erde (1997, Frederking & Thaler Verlag, Munich)
• Migrations (1994, Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro, Oregon)
• The Art of Photographing Nature (1993, Crown Publishers, NYC)
• Endangered Peoples (1993, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco)
• Light On the Land (1991, Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro, Oregon)

Awards

• National Outdoor Book Award (Design and Artistic Merit), Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky, 2004
• National Outdoor Book Award (Design and Artistic Merit), The Living Wild, 2001
• Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography, April 2000
• Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year, 1998, by the North American Nature Photography Association
• Photographer of the Year by Photo Media magazine, 1996
• Rachel Carson Award, The National Audubon Society, 1998

See also

• Nature photography
• Wildlife photography

External links

• Official website
• Artwolfeworkshops.com
• Official TV show website
• TV episode guide, trailers, and bonus footage
• Works by or about Art Wolfe in libraries (WorldCat catalog)