Peter Lik
Peter Lik has spent over 30 years pushing the boundaries of fine art with his world-renowned photography. He is a self-taught pioneer in the field of landscape photography, and has become synonymous with pristine images of desert canyons, cascading waterfalls, and skyscraping mountain peaks. Lik has been capturing expansive scenes of Mother Nature practically his whole life. He was born in Melbourne, Australia to hardworking Czech immigrants. From there on, Peter never took the gift of life’s beauty for granted. Peter’s catalogue of photographs can be traced back to the essential moment when the gift of a Brownie Kodak camera was given to him by his parents at the age of 8. It was after his first trip to the United States in 1984, that Peter discovered the panoramic camera format, a defining moment in his career. For the next two decades, Lik would travel back and forth between Australia and the United States, establishing a position in the world of fine art photography. Even though his artwork is seen for its amazing beauty and elegance, Lik’s work is also seen for its dollar signs. Many critics within the world of art and business would say that Lik’s recipe for success is to sell prints and print money. They say there is one thing he is good at, making sure he is always in the headlines when he releases a new image. He seems as if he is in awe of himself, selling his photographs for ungodly amounts of money ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. Lik may well be the most successful fine-art photographer to present day, but is he in it for the masterpieces that he can create and the joy of capturing Mother Nature’s most beautiful moments or is he in it for the profit?
I feel that I have made a connection with Peter Lik on a personal level with our love for landscape photography. Just like Lik, I believe that the beauty of Mother Nature is not something that should be taken for granted day in and day out. It is a gift that needs to be pondered, admired, and photographed to forever have a memory of its ever-changing beauty. Peter Lik’s images are a source of inspiration for me, forcing me to look past the typical scenes of my every day life, and into the world of unseen beauty. His photos are never the same and each one captures the eye with a brilliant array of colors and a breath taking landscape. Even though Lik is criticized for his greedy ways within the within the world of art and business, I still feel that his work speaks to me in a way that other landscape images do not.
Peter Lik has spent over 30 years pushing the boundaries of fine art with his world-renowned photography. He is a self-taught pioneer in the field of landscape photography, and has become synonymous with pristine images of desert canyons, cascading waterfalls, and skyscraping mountain peaks. Lik has been capturing expansive scenes of Mother Nature practically his whole life. He was born in Melbourne, Australia to hardworking Czech immigrants. From there on, Peter never took the gift of life’s beauty for granted. Peter’s catalogue of photographs can be traced back to the essential moment when the gift of a Brownie Kodak camera was given to him by his parents at the age of 8. It was after his first trip to the United States in 1984, that Peter discovered the panoramic camera format, a defining moment in his career. For the next two decades, Lik would travel back and forth between Australia and the United States, establishing a position in the world of fine art photography. Even though his artwork is seen for its amazing beauty and elegance, Lik’s work is also seen for its dollar signs. Many critics within the world of art and business would say that Lik’s recipe for success is to sell prints and print money. They say there is one thing he is good at, making sure he is always in the headlines when he releases a new image. He seems as if he is in awe of himself, selling his photographs for ungodly amounts of money ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. Lik may well be the most successful fine-art photographer to present day, but is he in it for the masterpieces that he can create and the joy of capturing Mother Nature’s most beautiful moments or is he in it for the profit?
I feel that I have made a connection with Peter Lik on a personal level with our love for landscape photography. Just like Lik, I believe that the beauty of Mother Nature is not something that should be taken for granted day in and day out. It is a gift that needs to be pondered, admired, and photographed to forever have a memory of its ever-changing beauty. Peter Lik’s images are a source of inspiration for me, forcing me to look past the typical scenes of my every day life, and into the world of unseen beauty. His photos are never the same and each one captures the eye with a brilliant array of colors and a breath taking landscape. Even though Lik is criticized for his greedy ways within the within the world of art and business, I still feel that his work speaks to me in a way that other landscape images do not.