Art Wolfe: Artist & Explorer
“Art Wolfe’s photographs are a superb evocation of some of the most breathtaking spectacles in the world.”
-Sir David Attenborough
About Art Wolfe
Art Wolfe is an internationally acclaimed photographer, author, educator, and conservation advocate whose career has spanned six decades. Known for his extraordinary range, artistic eye, and global perspective, he has created an enduring body of work that celebrates the beauty of the natural world, the richness of human culture, and the urgent need for conservation.
Origins
Born in Seattle, Washington, on September 13, 1951, Art Wolfe grew up in a family of commercial artists and still calls Seattle home. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1975 with bachelor’s degrees in fine arts and art education, where he studied under influential figures including Jacob Lawrence. That foundation in art continues to shape the distinctive visual language for which he is known today.
A Life in Service of Beauty and Conservation
Wolfe’s photography has always moved between art and documentation. Drawing on both artistic and journalistic traditions, he creates images that are visually compelling while also deepening understanding of the world they depict. Long before the term “conservation photography” came into common use, Wolfe was using photography to inspire environmental awareness by focusing on what is beautiful, essential, and worth protecting.
His work spans wildlife, landscapes, abstract natural forms, and cultures around the world, always guided by a profound respect for the environment and for indigenous traditions.
“the most prolific and sensitive recorder of a rapidly vanishing natural world”
william conway
Former President, Wildlife Conservation Society
A Global Body of Work
Over the course of his career, Wolfe has worked on every continent, in hundreds of locations, and across an extraordinary range of subjects and projects. He has created millions of images and continues to travel much of the year photographing, teaching, leading workshops, and giving presentations for conservation, educational, corporate, and cultural audiences around the world.
6 Decades
of global work
120+ Books
published in 8 languages
All Continents
photographed across a career
Millions of Images
across nature, culture, wildlife and more
Books, Exhibitions, and Signature Works
Since publishing his first book, Indian Baskets of the Northwest Coast, in 1978, Wolfe has become one of the most prolific photography authors of his generation. Since 1988, he has published at least one book every year, and his body of work now includes more than 120 titles in eight languages.
Among them are celebrated volumes such as The Living Wild*, Earth Is My Witness, Migrations, Trees: Between Earth and Heaven, Wild Elephants, Night on Earth, and Wild Lives.
His work has also been featured in major exhibitions and traveling shows, including Earth Is My Witness, Travels to the Edge, Beyond the Lens, and One World, One Vision. Seattle’s Frye Art Museum has hosted four major exhibitions of his photography.
On Screen, In the Field, and In the Classroom
Wolfe’s photographs have appeared in many of the world’s most respected publications, including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Audubon, GEO, and Terre Sauvage. His images have also been licensed widely for editorial, retail, and commercial use, including three United States postage stamps.
His work in television and film has extended his reach through projects including On Location with Art Wolfe, American Photo’s Safari, Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge, and Tales by Light.
Education has always been central to his work. He leads photographic tours and workshops worldwide, teaches his influential Photography as Art seminar, and is widely sought as a keynote speaker whose presentations combine humor, insight, conservation advocacy, and a deep belief in the value of pursuing a creative life with purpose.
Recognition
Wolfe has received numerous honors for his contributions to photography, conservation, and the arts, including major career and lifetime achievement awards, recognition from the National Audubon Society, the North American Nature Photography Association, the Photographic Society of America, and the University of Washington.
- Lifetime Achievement Award — NANPA
- Rachel Carson Award — National Audubon Society
- Alfred Eisenstaedt Award
- University of Washington Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus
- Honorary Fellow — Royal Photographic Society
- Member National — The Explorers Club
In Their Words
“Art Wolfe is a virtuoso whose eye brings home, again and again, the absolute need to preserve what we have.”
Morgan freeman
Actor and Narrator
“Art has the broadest range of excellence of any nature photographer I know.”
galen rowell
Photographer and Mountaineer
“Art Wolfe’s work tells a story that is overwhelming, breathtaking, and vast.”
robert redford
Actor, Director, and Environmental Advocate
“Art Wolfe’s brilliant and sensitive photographs are a powerful stimulation for changing attitudes.”
Jane Goodall
Primatologist and Conservationist
Enduring Vision
From books and exhibitions to television, workshops, and conservation advocacy, Art Wolfe has built one of the most distinctive and far-reaching careers in contemporary photography. He continues to create work that is at once visually inventive, deeply observant, and rooted in a lifelong commitment to beauty, wonder, and the living world.
“It is in the wild places, where the edge of the earth meets the corners of the sky, the human spirit is fed.”
art wolfe
