There are many fine photographers doing landscape work today.  In fact, this may well be the golden age of the landscape photo.  This site features the work of several of these artists.  Participation in this section is by invitation.

Click on each photographer’s name below to view a gallery of their work
as well as descriptions of locations and working styles.

Nick Rains

Nick Rains — Brisbane, Australia

Nick Rains has been photographing landscapes all over the world since leaving University in 1983.

In 1986 he spent a year in Perth, Western Australia covering the Americas Cup for a variety of International magazines such as Yachting World, London Times, and Boat International. Images from this event also appeared in Sports Illustrated, Stern, Paris Match, Regatta and many other well known publications.

Over the last 10 years Nick has traveled the length and breadth of Australia covering over 250,000km in his search for fine "Australian" images for the stock photography market. He makes his home in Brisbane, New South Wales.

Recent work has been published in Australian Geographic, Outback and GEO (Germany). Nick is now concentrating on photographic books of his favourite places. The latest one,The Kimberley, Journey through an Ancient Land, was released in July 99 and the next one onSouth Australiain March 2000. In between outback trips Nick operates a small studio and shoots commercial and stock photographs at home and overseas.

Nicks equipment includes Canon EOS, Pentax 67 and Silvestri camera systems.

Ed:Nick will be a guest co-Instructor atThe Luminous Landscape’s2000 Fall Colour Workshop in the Sierra.

Alain Briot

In Antelope Canyon — 1999

Alain Briot lives and works in the heart of the Southwestern luminous landscape. He makes his home in Chinle, Arizona and his living from print sales. Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly and the Grand Canyon are his backyard, and he explores them in depth with an artist’s eye.

Born and educated in France, Alain has made the U.S. his home since 1986. He has studied photography is France, received his Masters degree from Northern Arizona University, and is currently working on his PhD.

Alain may be contacted directly by clickinghere, or join theGuest Photographerdiscussion on ourForum. You should also visit his personalweb sitefor a look at more of this master photographer’s work.

A second portfolio by Alain, this time panoramic photographs taken with aFuji GX617camera, can be foundhere.

Steve Kossack

In Monument Valley — 1999

Steve’s work focuses on the American Southwest.  Previously based in L.A., though now living in the Northeast, Steve travels extensively through Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah photographing both the broad vistas and the hidden details.  Few people know the back roads of the western United States better than Steve, and fewer have as keen an eye for the Luminous Landscape.

Steve works exclusively with Canon equipment; an EOS 1V, EOS 1n and an AE2, along with an arsenal of Canon optics.  He works mostly with Fuji Velvia.

Steve may be contacted directly by clickinghere, or join theGuest Photographerdiscussion on ourForum.

James Chow

Jim is a native Californian who until his recent return to the U.S. lived in Kamakura, Japan, the capital of the first Shogunate 800 years ago. Although a researcher by profession, he is a serious amateur who primarily focuses his photography in Japan on temples/shrines, gardens, and landscapes. Jim often travels within Japan or overseas for photography, including SE Asia, the American Southwest, Canada, and Europe. "For the past two years, I’ve been studying the Japanese way of tea. It’s really about the seasons, meaning flora and climate, and heavily draws from Zen Buddhist themes in terms of its simplicity, delicacy, and beauty. This has influenced my photography in the way I view nature and notice subtle details, textures, and patterns."

For equipment, Jim uses the Rollei 6008 integral with Schneider optics (40/3.5 Super-Angulon, 90/4 Apo Makro-Symmar, 180/2.8 Tele-Xenar, 300/4 Apo Tele-Xenar, and 1.4x teleconverter). This system is complemented by a Fuji G617 with 105/8 Fujinon lens for panorama images, and when movements or a larger transparency is desired, he uses the Toyo VX125b with a Schneider 90/5.6 Super-Angulon XL and 210/5.6 Apo-Symmar.

Jim may be contacted directly by clickinghere, or join theGuest Photographerdiscussion on ourForum.

November, 1999: A new portfolio of photographs taken by Jim in the Western U.S. this time is featuredhere.

Paul Elson

Paul Elson was born and brought up in Manhattan. During college, and before graduating as a Philosophy Major from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1967, he studied twelve months in Paris as an art student. It was in Paris that he acquired a lifelong appreciation for what he calls "discernible art" — favorite practitioners of which includePraxiteles,Brunelleschi,Rembrandt, andSeurat. After graduation from Antioch the path of Art and Philosophy led to the U.S. Navy, where Paul became an officer and a pilot. Five years later, after two tours in Vietnam where he received personal decorations for valor in combat, he was discharged from Active Duty. While flying in the Naval Reserve, he began his career as a photographer in 1975 in New York City. 

Paul’s commercial photography clients include a score from the Fortune 500. He specialized in architecture, travel and food, and thoroughly enjoyed the worldwide voyages on which he was dispatched by the hotel chains, cruise lines, and travel and food magazines that are household phrases in the American lexicon. 

In 1999, Paul’s path diverged from its extremely successful photographic course. With talents refined during his commercial career he developed a unique art form he callsPhoto Impressionism. It involves capturing an image photographically, painting or drawing on the resultant print, re-photographing it, and then scanning it to create anIrisprint on archival watercolor paper. 

Paul may be contacted directly by clickinghere, or join theGuest Photographerdiscussion on ourForum. His portfolio is foundhere.