Peter Essick
Peter Essick is a photographer, teacher, and editor with 30 years of experience working with National Geographic Magazine. He specializes in nature and environmental themes. Named one of the forty most influential nature photographers in the world by Outdoor Photography Magazine UK, Essick has been influenced by many noted American landscape photographers from Carleton Watkins to Robert Adams. His goal is to make photographs that move beyond documentation to reveal in careful compositions the human impact of development as well as the enduring power of the land.
Essick is the author of four books of his photographs, The Ansel Adams Wilderness, Our Beautiful, Fragile World, Fernbank Forest and Work in Progress. He has photographed stories for National Geographic on many environmental issues including climate change, high-tech trash, nuclear waste and freshwater. After 30 years travelling the world as an editorial photographer, Essick decided to focus his work on a more personal documentation of the environmental and cultural changes in his hometown of Atlanta.
Essick's photographs are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Booth Western Art Museum and many other private collections. He is represented by Spalding Nix Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.
Purchase Peter’s new book, Work in Progress here.
Exhibitions
2025 SHAPESHIFT, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Group Exhibition, 35 photographs
2024 Work in Progress, Circle Gallery, Athens, Georgia, Solo Exhibition, 35 photographs
2023 THOROUGHFARE, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Group Exhibition, 35 photographs
2022 Works in Progres, Kennesaw State University, School of Architecture Gallery, Marietta, Georgia Solo Exhibition, 16 photographs
2022 Contemporary Landscapes, Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, Georgia, Group Exhibition, seven photographs
2021 Human/Nature, Lishui Art Museum, China, Group Exhibition, eight photographs
2021 ELEMENTAL, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Group Exhibition, 25 photographs
2021 New Outside: Contemporary Landscape, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Group Exhibition, 22 photographs
2020 Wayfinding, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Group Exhibition, 14 photographs
2020 Fractured, photo-eye Gallery, Group Exhibition, one photograph
2019 Choice, Chance & Circumstance, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, Group Exhibition, 11 photographs
2017 Fernbank Forest: Designed By Nature, Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta, Georgia, Solo Exhibition, 52 photographs
2017 Yoho National Park: A Canadian Gem, Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, Georgia, Solo exhibition, 33 photographs
2015 Ansel: Before and After, Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, Georgia, Group exhibition, three photographs
2010 Depth of Field - Compositions In Nature, Lumière Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, Solo Exhibition, 29 photographs