Sam Abell

was born in 1945 in Sylvania, Ohio. He is an American photographer known for his frequent publication of photographs in National Geographic. He first worked for National Geographic in 1967. Abell's style of photography is documentary in the sense that his major avenue, the National Geographic magazine, is a publication of record. However, his best work is known for its transcendent qualities, starting at the documentary level yet open to interpretation on an aesthetic level.


Sam Abell's love of photography began due to the influence of his father who was a geography teacher who ran a photography club. In his book The Photographic Life, Abell mentions a photograph he made while on an outing with his father, a photograph that subsequently won a small prize in a photo contest. He credits that prize as being a major influence on the direction his life would take. Abell was the photographer and co-editor for his high school yearbook and newspaper.


Abell graduated from the University of Kentucky in Lexington where he majored in English, minored in Journalism, and was the editor of the Kentuckian Yearbook. He is also a teacher, an artist and an author.
Abell received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Toledo on May 10, 2009.
Sam Abell's books are essential for any photographic book collector. His latest, The Life of a Photograph, completes a set of three volumes begun in 2000 with Seeing Gardens. It was followed in 2002 with The Photographic Life.

Opionion


One of my favorite photographs by Abell is the one of the tree viewed through a Japanese window, It just so happens that the image is on the  cover of his book Seeing Gardens.


It's a documentary photograph of a tree, but due a combination of light and Abell's inclusion in his composition of roof tiles in the background, the photograph takes on the transcendent, illusory quality of a stained glass window.


This is a rare photograph as Abell rarely uses flashy imagery, preferring a pure relationship with light. He has been quoted as saying that he could be perfectly happy with his photography even if his only subject was light itself.