Color work by Richard Olsenius from his stories and travels throughout the American West

From the Western body of work by Richard Olsenius

Fine Art prints from the National Geographic story “In Search of Lake Wobegon,” by Garrison Keillor and Richard Olsenius.

An important part to the collection of Richard Olsenius is his black & white work, particularly in large format.

Intimate moment along the Mississippi River, Minnesota. The street photography of Richard Olsenius has been an important part of his body of work. Many of his prints reside in the Minnesota Historical Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts permanent collection

The East Coast and the Chesapeake Bay region has a long and rich history of commerce and exploration that was important to the development of the United States. Today, a number of these tall-ships ply the coast and Richard Olsenius, has through his years of sailing, captured many of them.

The delicate connection between Land and Water has been a constant theme in Richard Olsenius’ work. Olsenius has spent most of his life living either on a midwestern lake, Lake Superior or the Chesapeake Bay.

This is the time when the land shuts down, giving pause to take note of ourselves and the things around us. Much of Olsenius’ work took him into the American West, the Midwest and the high Arctic. “There is something about this season that lays bare the simple designs of nature and elements of society. Muted colors and almost total quiet are the layers of Winter I am drawn to.

Richard Olsenius spent 24 years working and living on the East Coast along Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis, MD where they sailed as far North as Nova Scotia and as far south as the Caribbean. But the Chesapeake, as America’s largest and most fragile estuary is where he created “Chesapeake Visions” a musical and video tribute to this important waterway.

Lighthouses can be such a cliché for photographers, but I am still taken by the structures that use to mean so much to mariners and their safety. So much can be brought to the lighthouse composition by bringing emotion and lighting through weather and time of day.