BIOGRAPHY

Gary Alan Nelson has spent the past 15 years exploring and photographing the wild places and vanishing rural landscapes of North America. Gary photographs national and state parks, trails, lakeshores, seashores, prairies, forests, rivers, deserts, wilderness areas, rural routes, scenic by-ways and country backroads throughout the country, from sweeping landscapes to intimate details.

He utilizes a large format field camera to produce 4x5 inch transparencies that are 16 times larger than traditional 35mm film. This film delivers stunning image clarity, detail and color saturation.

Gary has recently completed his second exhibition format book, titled Wild Minnesota, to be released in November of 2005 by Voyageur Press. His first book, Backroads of Minnesota, won a Benjamin Franklin Award as the best photographic travel book of 2002. In 2000 Outdoor Photographer Magazine named him a master of landscape photography. He has also written several articles relating to photography for Outdoor Photographer. For over 10 years he has been the signature photographer of the Wild and Scenic Minnesota calendar, published by BrownTrout in San Francisco.

Gary has over 10,000 4x5 transparencies in his photographic files. His images have appeared in publications by The Audubon Society, Backpacker, Hallmark, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Books, National Wildlife, National Parks & Conservation, The Nature Conservancy, Outdoor Photographer, Outside, The Sierra Club, Travel-Holiday and The Wilderness Society. Gary has hundreds of images published annually in calendars, magazines, books and numerous other publications.

When he is not on the road photographing, Gary lives in Minnesota with his wife Carmelita, two children Annie & Will, and dog Duncan.