09 May Chuck Wood: Artist Member of the Month
Every month, we're proud to show off an ACP Member-Artist. This month, enjoy getting to know photographer Chuck Wood.
Tell us about yourself and your art!
I am a photographer specializing in nature photography – particularly wildlife, birds, and landscapes. I also love the art of printing, and release my work as limited editions that I produce in my studio and sell through my website and at shows and art fairs.
How did you become an artist/first get into art?
My first love as a kid was always music, and I eventually studied music at Oberlin College. After graduation, my musical career followed two tracks: one was as a drummer in a number of rock-and-roll bands, including Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Ned Sublette, and Soma. The other was as a composer and performer of avant-garde music, and as co-founder of Essential Music, I helped to produce a number of concerts working closely with John Cage, Robert Ashley, and others.
My shift into photography started back in the late eighties, and for the next three decades I traveled extensively, focusing on travel and street photography. Nature photography, particularly wildlife, birds and landscapes became a more or less exclusive focus about ten years ago.
What’s inspiring you these days?
Last last year, during an expedition to Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway, I had the horrifying experience of seeing a young female polar bear entangled in a heavy abandoned fishing net. She eventually was able to get free, but it was an education in a threat I was previously unaware of to the survival of a threatened species. I wrote about that experience in an article published by Polar Bears International. In subsequent trips I’ve made since then, to Churchill (Canada), Botswana and northern India, it has been impossible to get away from the stark impact that global warming and pollution has been having on some of the more remote areas of our planet. I realize that I need to be placing at least as much emphasis on this as I might in creating images of beauty. As a result, some of my more recent work has been focused on issues of conservation, pollution, etc.
Who are some of your favorite artists?
I am inspired by a wide range of art and artists, not necessarily just photographers. My favorite visual artist is Ad Reinhardt, in particular his later black paintings. Musically, John Cage and Iannis Xenakis are huge influences. In photography, I am particularly fond of the work of Ansel Adams, Carleton Watkins, Frank Hurley, Hubert Ponting and Henri Cartier Bresson.
Where can people find out more about you?
The best place to find out more about me and my work is on my website. I would recommend that you subscribe to my newsletter where I share information about shows and events, new releases, and where I’ve been traveling to. I also maintain an Instagram page at @chuckwoodphoto.