John Anderson studied and worked with master photographers Ansel Adams, Arthur Bacon and Bob Kolbrener before graduating Bennington College, Vermont with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Now following a lifelong engagement with wilderness, John has spent the last several years photographing extensively in the mountains, forests and coast of the Pacific Northwest.  

Artist's Statement

"The wilderness that remains in the North Cascades and on the Olympic Peninsula is a doorway to another world. Its lush and overwhelming complexity, its harsh beauty, its alien remoteness immerse the visitor in an experience that awakens the chthonic soul. When I photograph in this mythic landscape, I fall into a kind of trance induced by the spirit of the place and the unique quality of light that each moment creates. I look until I am taken by a configuration or gesture of the land that elicits an emotional response. That's the moment when I have to photograph and the challenge ensues to allow the image to pass through the equipment and process and emerge on the other side transformed yet hopefully retaining its original force. If I succeed, something of that other world resonates within the abstracted black and white image."

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