Peter Essick

Tracy Arm, Alaska

1996

Peter Essick is a photographer, author, speaker, instructor and drone pilot who specializes in nature and environmental themes. He is inspired by the works of Walker Evans, Ray K. Metzker and David Hockney. Named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers in the world by the Outdoor Photography Magazine, Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers from Carleton E, Watkins to Robert Adams. His goal is to make photographs that move beyond mere documentation to reveal in careful compositions the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land. Essick is the author of two books of his photographs, The Ansel Adams Wilderness, and Our Beautiful, Fragile World. He has had solo exhibitions of his work at the Booth Western Art Museum, Yoho National Park: A Canadian Gem and at Compositions in Nature, Lumière Gallery. Essick has photographed stories for National Geographic on many environmental issues including climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste and freshwater. Other work has been published in international magazines. Essick's photographs are in public and private collections. Currently, Essick is working on a book of his photographs about Fernbank Forest, an urban old-growth forest in Atlanta, and will be published by Fall Line Press in 2020.