Portrait of Art Wolfe
© Kate Baldwin
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In this second installment, BP's Jim Miotke continues his talk with the host of the "Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe" TV seriesRenowned photographer Art Wolfe has combined artistic and journalistic styles into a unique style. He has numerous books to his credit, as well as many awards, and is known for his passion for wildlife advocacy.
Art's most recent project is Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe, which airs on public television stations around the U.S. and offers thoughts on nature, cultures, environmental issues and digital photography.
For this second interview - as well as with Part I - BetterPhoto Founder and President Jim Miotke visited Art in his beautiful Washington state home.
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Jim Miotke: Do you have any favorite locations that you really move you?
Art Wolfe:
Yes. I think the Arctic areas. I love Arctic landscapes because you struggle for comfort there. There's just this overwhelming sense of being really out there in the margins.
Jim Miotke: Are your photography trips highly organized - with a carefully thought-out shooting strategy?
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Art Wolfe:
I'm structured, but I do build into that structure room for spontaneity. Still, I do "story board".
I'll get an idea and draw it out so when, for example, I'm in Nepal, I'll hire 60 monks and I've already drawn pictures of what I want them to do. Or when I'm in Bali, I'll have, like, 200 people lying down with palms up so their hands become sort of the shot. Or, in Nepal, I’ve painted the sketch, and I'll have yellow-hatted monks with one person looking back.
And, for the cover of my Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky book, I knew I was going to take a double exposure with layering the stars over an exploding volcano. I had to line that up and figure it out and think about it, because when you're up on top of an exploding volcano and you have all these elements, you get distracted. So you have to be focused.
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Jim Miotke: Do you find that people are surprised to learn that you've set up a shot? For example, that there is something wrong with it - that it's not as valuable because you didn't just happen upon an incredible event?
Art Wolfe:
Yes, I get really tired of people who use words like "cheating" or "manipulate" or whatever. They use these negative terms to describe what should be a free art form. Now if you're a photojournalist and you're creating a false reality, I can see and they do hold themselves up because if you're a journalist, you have to be pretty true to what it is.
For myself, I'm taking the elements that are there and I'm just giving it a little more stylized look ... otherwise, I'm just photographing something that people have already shot.
And I want always to have a slightly different look. That's how I make a reputation. That's how I move myself forward and push the art form forward.
All photos and text © Art Wolfe and BetterPhoto.com, Inc., all rights reserved worldwide. No form of reproduction or usage - including copying, altering, or saving of digital image and text files - is permitted without the express written permission of Art Wolfe and BetterPhoto.com, Inc.
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