Focus On The User presents Pete Myers

Pete Myers is one of the leading Master Fine Art Landscape Photographers of our time. He is 52-years old and resides in Santa Fe, NM with his wife, Kathy. Fine art photography has been his profession since 1994.

Myers is known for his compelling works of the American West, wherein he explores the very lands that shaped those that came west during the great migration spanning the last one hundred and fifty years. Unique in the entire world, it is the dream of these dreamers that shaped these lands. Their courage and vision for a better life may not have always prospered, but their legacy lives on in the beauty of what they left behind. The buildings, landscape, cars and artifacts remaining from their existence are a glimpse into their world and the courage of their convictions.

Pete’s personal focus in his work is to celebrate what is in front of the lens. The work is not about him as the photographer, but rather in honoring what he feels through the lens. Reflecting that emotional connection into the fine art work is created by his painstaking efforts in post production. He spends as much time with each image carefully completing the work as a painter does in painting their picture.

Radiator Springs Bed Truck © 2012, Peter H. Myers

Myers’ work in photography is not about “taking images”, but in “making images.” While his fieldwork is a critical element in image formation, it is his long days of effort in shaping the image in post production wherein he creates a work of art. The computer is his canvas, and he shapes the light upon each image element so as to evoke an emotional response within the viewer upon seeing the completed photograph. His interest is in making his technique so flawless as to not be seen, but rather to enable the beauty within the image.

Pete’s professional life started early. Very early. At the age of 15, he began his career in electrical and bio-electrical engineering at NASA. He consulted to NASA for twelve years. His favorite project, which he helped design and space qualify, was the Frog Experimental Unit, which flew on Space Shuttle flight STS-47.  During his time at NASA he learned the mathematics of digital image processing while designing a backup image viewing system for the Pioneer 11 fly-by of Saturn in 1979.

In 1985, at the age of 25, Myers was the founder of a Silicon Valley start-up. Not just limited to the imaging sciences, he created audio technology for virtual reality that year, and was heralded in the international press for his pioneering work (US Patent 4817149). Ultimately, the technology proved decades ahead of its time and commercialization was not achieved.

Pete was one of the earl pioneers in the use of digital photography for the creation of fine art. His 1993 works were immediately displayed as part of a group show at the Ansel Adams Center for Photography in San Francisco, and a career quickly emerged. The son of an amateur oil painter, and brother of a prominent watercolorist, he soon displayed his own gifts in the arts using a combination of math, science and know-how from his NASA days.

In 2000, Myers was an artist in residence chosen to celebrate the centennial of Crater Lake National Park. The iconic image from his work, A Moment of Clarity,  hangs in the Administration Building within the park as celebration of the centennial. The Associated Press ran a full-page story on his work at Crater Lake.

In 2002, Pete became the first and only photographer in the world to begin photographing with a digital monochrome camera—the Kodak DCS 760m. For eighteen months, he pioneered the use of digital monochrome photography before a failure with the camera system ended the work.

Myers is a member of the Authors Guild, and has been active in writing on the subject of fine art photography for a number of leading publications, including Luminous Landscape, Photo Techniques, Outback Photo, Diglloyd, Zeiss, Leica and the National Park Service. Additionally, he is often asked to guest lecture on the subject.

Pete’s website is petemyers.com