INTERVIEW
Art Wolfe
You’d think this veteran travel photographer had seen it all – but, as Graeme Green discovers, his thirst for adventure remains
Ancient bristlecone pine. California, USA.
Art Wolfe
Art Wolfe
Photographer
Art Wolfe has been working as a travel photographer for more than 45 years and has taken photos on every continent. His photos have also supported various wildlife and conservation causes. He’s based in Seattle, Washington, USA.
Wolfe has won the Nature’s Best Photographer of the Year Award, the North American Nature Photography Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Photographic Society of America’s Progress Medal. He’s also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
He has produced more than 65 books, including Earth Is MyWitness,Photographs FromThe Edge,Vanishing Act,Human Canvas and his latest, Night On Earth. His photography has appeared in global publications including National Geographic,Smithsonian, Audubon and Geo, and on three stamps produced by the US Postal Service. He hosted the television series ArtWolfe’sTravels to the Edge and featured in Netflix’s Tales By Light.
www.artwolfe.com
One of the world’s best-known and best-loved photographers, Art Wolfe has been travelling the world since the 1970s, shooting everywhere from Tibet to Tanzania. Like many human fears, the fear of darkness and night, he’s discovered, is often unfounded. In fact, as his new book shows, there’s plenty of human life and natural beauty to celebrate and photograph at night.
Night On Earth features a diverse range of landscape photography (the Milky Way behind Easter Island’s Moai statues, star trails in Australia, glowing volcanoes in Hawaii, Northern Lights in Iceland, moonrise in Antarctica, modern cityscapes…), as well as animals that are active at night (rhinos, anteaters, owls, hyena…) and the often unseen side of human life that takes place between dusk and dawn (camel drivers, fishermen, fire dancers, food markets, masked rituals, celebrations…).
Wolfe’s work has always been remarkable in its breadth, not just covering wildlife, landscapes and local cultures, but in his changing styles and techniques – from abstract art, inspired by his background in fine art, to astrophotography to human portraits to animal activity.