George Gardner

Born in 1940 in Albany, New York, George Gardner is a fascinating modern photographer. He studied anthropology at the University of Missouri, but was influenced by the school’s excellent photojournalism program. Though he was not officially a student of photojournalism, he won about 25 awards for his photography, including the major portfolio award from Missouri’s school of photojournalism. 

Gardner has been called a “gypsy photographer, roaring in and out of towns on his motorcycle, camera at ready.” He also flies a plane and thrives on exploring America, never without a camera. “America is my place,” he says, “I have no choice, and I have always felt that. Anyplace else, I’m just a tourist, I don’t connect. In America, I feel as if I have some deep notion of what’s going on. I am trying to get at what I think about America.”

Gardner currently resides in upstate New York on farm property. He says that like farming, photography requires hard physical labor and concentration. He is an extremely focused artist.