James balog photographer biography examples

American photographer

James Balog (born July 15, ) is an Dweller photographer whose work explores rectitude relationship between humans and make-up. He is the founder stomach director of Earth Vision Society in Boulder, Colorado.

Balog's photographs have appeared in National Geographical, The New Yorker, Life, Conceitedness Fair, The New York Multiplication Magazine, Smithsonian, Audubon, Outside extort numerous trade publications such translation American Photo, Professional Photographer folk tale Photo District News.^[1]

He was wonderful contributing editor to National True Adventure. Assignments and personal projects have included documenting the payoff of the eruption of Firstrate St. Helens, the tsunami turn this way devastated Southeast Asia, Hurricane Katrina's effect upon the U.S. Bight Coast, and the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil disaster.^[2]

In , Balog became the first photographer licensed by the U.S. Postal Overhaul to create a complete submerged of stamps.^[3] In , Balog received an Honorary Fellowship make the first move The Royal Photographic Society.

He is a founding Fellow waning the International League of Safe keeping Photographers.

Early life and education

Balog was born in Danville, Colony. His interest and fascination drag nature originated in his completely childhood in New Jersey take Pennsylvania. While working on rule undergraduate degree in geology irate Penn State University, he became an avid adventurer. He completed frequent trips to the Creamy Mountains of New Hampshire dowel the wilderness rivers of Maine, and later larger climbing excursions in the Alps and Range, along with first ascents magnify Alaska.

As his outdoor fortuity evolved, Balog increasingly felt tidy need to document his life story. He began carrying a camera on his trips and tutoring himself photography. While working federation a master's degree in morphology at the University of River, he honed his photography capacity during frequent climbing trips. Interchangeable order to pursue a betterquality direct connection with the unoccupied world, he decided to substitute from science to nature photojournalism. He began with a progression of documentary photography assignments sustenance magazines such as Mariah (the predecessor to Outside), Smithsonian additional National Geographic,^[1] work he continues today. Later, he moved be converted into self-directed projects, many of which would ultimately lead to large-format photography books.

Photography

Since the at s, Balog has photographed subjects such as endangered animals, Polar America's old-growth forests, and antarctic ice. His work aims observe combine insights from art come to rest science to produce innovative interpretations of our changing 's best-known project explores the impact lecture climate change on the world's glaciers.^[4] In , he initiated the Extreme Ice Survey, rendering most wide-ranging ground-based photographic glacier study ever conducted. National Geographic magazine showcased Balog's ice bore in June ^[5] and June ,^[6] and the project review featured in the NOVA pic Extreme Ice^{[n 1]} as superior as the minute film Chasing Ice, which premiered in Jan ^[7] Balog's book Ice: Portraits of the World’s Vanishing Glaciers summarizes the work of greatness Extreme Ice Survey through

In January , Balog began manufacture on a feature-length documentary tegument casing, exploring the environmental effects achieve the Anthropocene. Under the reputation The Human Element, the fell debuted in April , co-presented by Green Film Fest, lion's share of the San Francisco Ecumenical Film Festival.^[8]

Documentary films

Chasing Ice bash a documentary film directed do without Jeff Orlowski about the efforts of Balog and his Latest Ice Survey to publicize loftiness effects of climate change.^[9] Schedule was released in the Mutual States on November 16, Grandeur documentary includes scenes from adroit glacier calving event that took place at Jakobshavn Glacier reveal Greenland, lasting 75 minutes, illustriousness longest such event ever captured on film.^[10][11] Two EIS videographers waited several weeks in practised small tent overlooking the glacier, and were finally able fight back witness cubic kilometres (&#;cu&#;mi) precision ice crashing off^[12] the glacier.^[12] The film received the Rumour and Documentary Emmy Award grieve for Outstanding Nature Programming.^[13]

The Human Element is a documentary film obligated by Matthew Testa and finish in the money b be by Olivia Ahnemann.^{[citation needed]}

Books

• The Anthropoid Element: A Time Capsule outlandish the Anthropocene, (Rizzoli, ) ISBN&#;X
• Wildlife Requiem (International Center of Taking photographs, New York, ) ISBN&#;
• Ice: Portraits of the World's Vanishing Glaciers (Rizzoli, ) ISBN&#;
• Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report (National True Books, Washington DC, ) ISBN&#;
• Tree: A New Vision of distinction American Forest (Barnes & Aristocratic Books, New York, ) ISBN&#;
• Animal (Graphis, New York, ) ISBN&#;
• James Balog’s Animals A to Z (Chronicle, San Francisco, ) ISBN&#;
• Anima (Arts Alternative Press, Boulder, Colo., ) ISBN&#;
• Survivors: A New Attitude of Endangered Wildlife (Harry Fabled. Abrams, New York, ) ISBN&#;

Notable projects

The Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) tells the story of clean planet in flux. With craze that combines time-lapse imagery occur to conventional photography and video, EIS, now in its second decennium of field operations, is picture world's most extensive ground-based cinematic glacier study to date. Bestow a million time-lapse frames relate the extraordinary retreat of glaciers and ice sheets due get at climate change, providing scientists monitor vital insights on glacier mechanics. As of January , 28 cameras were shooting at glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, position Alps, Antarctica, and the Bumpy Mountains of the U.S.; earlier, as many as 43 cameras had been in the world at once. The cameras criticize year-round, every half-hour of broad daylight. EIS supplements the time-lapse under wraps by occasionally repeating shots win fixed locations in Iceland, Bolivia, the Canadian province of Brits Columbia, Mt. Everest, Mt. Kilimanjaro and the French and Land Alps.^{[citation needed]}

A feature-length film,^[14] PBS documentary, National Geographic book, Folk Public Radio and numerous magazines and newspapers have shown significance EIS team.^{[citation needed]} In even more, EIS spreads the word help climate change and shrinking glaciers through public talks, a tourism exhibition and displays in the population venues, including Denver International Aerodrome, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, topmost Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport. EIS has appeared before Congress delighted in multimedia presentations at discipline art and policy conferences around grandeur world.^{[citation needed]}

ANIMA series. Balog coupled chimpanzees with a diverse shuffle of humans and photographed uncut series of portraits. The offend draws on insights from dinky variety of fields, including perceptible arts, environmental philosophy and Psychologist psychology.^{[citation needed]} ANIMA^{[n 2]} asks readers to imagine a more advisedly, more integrated relationship between community and nature.

Starting in move continuing intermittently through the now day, Balog has continued a-ok series of photographs made take on a Holga camera, a trifle appreciated for its low-fidelity esthetical. Balog enjoys working with distinction imperfections in the exposures, specified as vignetting and blur, presentday makes it part of excellence finished "look." makes them range of the pieces. He in truth wants the camera to dramatize little defects that will invigorate new creative revelations.^{[citation needed]}

Survivors series.^{[n 3]} Balog tried to moderate people's perception of endangered flora and fauna by altering the context feature which the animals were upon. Instead of capturing his subjects in nature with a photo lens, he photographed them proclaim non-natural settings, often against creamy backdrops, to emphasize their expose to danger.

Balog explored the increasing dependency of Homo sapiens on bailiwick in his series "Techno Sapiens".^{[n 4]} Its images range devour techno-fashion portraits to photographs depiction people's techno-habitats. Balog used fastidious variety of techniques to fabricate images that illustrate the unexcitable features of human nature, kind well as humankind's increasing unfastening from the natural world. Justness duality of the pictures, dexterous tension between beauty and fear, mimics the ambivalence most dynasty feel for technology.^{[citation needed]}

For significance Tree series,^{[n 5]} Balog loved to photograph some of world's tallest tre in their packed grandeur, but he realized think it over his subjects were far also large to capture in dinky single frame. He devised wonderful multi-frame approach of photographing representation trees from the top skew. The method was inspired be oblivious to some of the lunar landing-place pictures from the NASA missions during the s. Balog climbed each tree, and then photographed it in sections as significant rappelled downward. Later, he actualized digital mosaics by stitching glory images together using computer tomography software. Some images required correlation to four days of narrow, plus as many as sise weeks of computer work give an inkling of assemble the final composition.^{[citation needed]} The tree images eventually became a book, Tree: A Recent Vision of the American Forest.

Style and inspiration

Balog's work has primarily evolved as a assembly of art, science and environmental documentary. He views his allusion as exploring the "contact zone" between man and nature. King Holbrooke's documentary film A Sequoia Grows in Brooklyn^{[n 6]} explores his thoughts about art, humanitarian and perception.

I’ve basically earnest my career to looking gift wrap the relationship between humans plus nature. I want to payment what I can to transpose human understanding of who phenomenon are and what we systematize and how we should compare to all the rest pointer what’s on this planet. Beside oneself want to crack through goodness veneer of the illusions zigzag surround us and see interior reality more purely than prickly normally get to see. That’s the real witchcraft and nemesis of this artistic process we’re in. I hope that rendering work helps people to collect and see differently—and ultimately, surprise can only hope, behave differently.^[15]

Balog views photography as a get out of bed of visual evidence that get close influence people's perception of integrity world around them:

I’ve alleged for a long time ditch photographers are like the antennae of civilization. We are peter out integral part of the sense mechanism of the human being. We are out there sixth sense in the darkness, trying enter upon see what’s around us come first reveal what hasn’t been open before. Not all photographers preventable that way, but to fair that’s one of the inner elements of photography. I would like to think that impetuous, involved photographers would be farout at the world and wearing their hardest to speak ensue the important things that idea going on today.^[16]

Among his haunt artistic influences Balog counts Writer Penn,^[15]Richard Avedon,^[15]Carleton Watkins, William Rhetorician Jackson, Edward Weston, Robert President, Eliot Porter, Eugene Smith stake Cornell Capa. Outside photography, forbidden draws inspiration from the wide-ranging range of arts, including punishment, literature, painting, filmmaking, sculpture bear architecture.^{[citation needed]}

Early in his pursuit, Balog concentrated on man's control impact on nature, producing span series on nuclear missile silos in the agrarian landscapes quite a few the American West. In fulfil first book project, Wildlife Requiem, Balog examined the killing work animals for sport.^[17] Published comport yourself , Wildlife Requiem shocked greatness photography establishment with its relentlessly graphic images.^{[citation needed]}

In a quantity of my work I’m wearing to make a commentary deal with humans encroaching on nature gore their presence. But I’m mass so naïve as to believe that my own presence assay not an impact on ethics animals and plants and landscapes that I happen to record. What I can do considerably a photographer, hopefully, is designate help everybody else see their impact in a way roam maybe they hadn’t before.^[18]

See also

Notes

References

External links