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Richard Olsenius

Experience a musical and photographic adventure across the American landscape. Travel along the Alaskan and Canadian Inside Passage, journey through the Midwest in Search of Lake Wobegon, glide down the dark Amazon beyond your familiar edge. Sail the Chesapeake, explore Puget Sound.

Richard Olsenius takes you on an odyssey from the Arctic to the deep reaches of the Amazon River through original music, photography and video that spans over 40 years and includes much of his work from National Geographic Magazine. Richard Olsenius has been shooting film and video and composing music inspired by the American Landscape since 1975. His landscape photography and documentary work has been published in newspapers, magazines and international organizations around the world. His assignments span from the Arctic to South America, and from Europe to SE Asia. But the heart of his work features the people and places of the American Landscape.

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“Our landscape is one of the main characters in our lives.

It shapes who we are and connects us to our past.”

Landscape Photography, Video & Music by Richard Olsenius

TIMES SQUARE

In my earlier years most of my work was inspired by Robert Frank, Danny Lyons and others who worked the streets. Tri-x pushed hard and images printed on contrasty paper was my normal. Anything that caught my eye or tweaked my funny-bone or spoke to me in dark undertones usually found it’s way to film. You can image the waste. Often though, I would snare something that lives as a print in my box of keepers. I never forget those images or those moments however brief. Many of these prints made it into a book called FLIGHT, which has been out of print for some time.

Recently I was in New York City with friends, far from the comfortable open spaces I’ve grown accustomed to. But in a rush I awakened to the energy one can get from wandering the streets of New York, like my earlier days when I lived in the Village. With traffic now banned from Times Square, there are now masses of people all chasing, or waiting, or watching. What a wonderful part of the american landscape to be with a camera.

This newly released album of my music on iTunes is inspired by two journeys in a small boat along the Inside Passage. This passage, nearly 1200 miles long, begins among the low-slung islands of Puget Sound near Seattle and winds its way northward to Glacier Bay through seemingly endless channels and bays that are bordered by the majestic mountains of the Pacific Northwest. It is truly one of the last wild places left on this North American landscape.

As a photographer and composer, this adventure was not recorded with words but with a visual and musical vocabulary etched by water, wind, mountains and ice. Everyone's life needs at least one great journey, a journey that can fold back all the layers that obscure the meaning of our days. I hope this musical journey along the Inside Passage will inspire your hopes and dreams for tomorrow. You can sample the music on iTunes by clicking on the label to the left.

Music Inspired by the American Landscapes - Film Music Volume 1

Chesapeake Winter

Work in progress.

Midway along the vast Atlantic coastline lies a large estuary where freshwater from a hundred streams blends with saltwater from the ocean. It is called the Chesapeake Bay - an Algonquin term for “land along the big river.”

I started filming along the Chesapeake in 2007 and have finally completed my work. This winter I’m in the process of editing and composing music for a 40 minute DVD and album.

I hope to be finished by summer 2013.

Explore the American Landscape