(c) 2009 Brian E. Miller Photography
This is number seven in my (sort of) weekly series about people or works of art that inspire me to create my art. However, I would like to apologize for missing last week’s post. I do have a good excuse though: my wife gave birth to our second son and I had my hands, quite literally, full. So no post last week but hopefully one you will enjoy this week.
This week’s post is about travel photographer Art Wolfe. Although I have probably seen Art’s images for many years given how prolifically published he is, he really came to my awareness as a result of his foray into television: namely the “Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge ” series he produces for public television. I mentioned Wolfe’s series in my post last week and it is a show I look forward to each week. Each episode is dedicated to a different photography expedition where the viewer gets a behind the scenes look at what it takes to capture the images he does. Wolfe describes the environment and cultures he visits and explains what moves him about his experience all the while taking photographs along the way.
What strikes me the most about Wolfe is his friendly demeanor and willingness to connect personally with his subjects. Often I marvel at the film footage of him in the midst of a group of children, nearly being buried, while showing them images on the LCD on the back of his camera. He is not the kind of man to stand back, voyeuristically photographing; he is the kind of man that pops open his Dell laptop in a yurt in Mongolia to show an elderly grandmother an image he took of her. Wolfe appears to be able to balance a warm and affable nature with an impressive drive to capture captivating images. In fact, in a recent episode showing how the show is made, his production crew unanimously agreed that it is challenging and exciting to try to keep up with Wolfe when he is on the trail of a good photograph. Apparently his penchant for disappearing on his production crew is notorious such is his drive to capture the image.
Art Wolfe’s wonderful images can be found by clicking through to his blog site here. His video series, “Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge ” can be viewed on your local PBS/Create station or by visiting Create TV.
Art’s nature shots are just amazing. And a pretty cool blog, to boot. I don’t know how you have the time to follow all these amazing photographers. There’s so much out there on the web, it’s overwhelming.
Focus. Focus.