Dudley Edmondson

Dudley Edmondson has spent the last 15 years as a freelance photographer, gathering thousands of nature and wildlife images from around the country. Many of his images have graced the pages of natural history publications in the United States and Europe. Dudley proudly carries on a family tradition started by his great grandfather Monteith Vance who was a portrait photographer and issued a license by the state of North Carolina in 1919.

Over the years Dudley has developed unique compositional concepts in his photographic work. "Composition is as much about what is around the subject as the subject itself. A great image is made when the photographer understands the importance of the elements he or she uses in the composition. Understanding how to create balance through color, shape and perspective while always giving the viewer a focal point by which they are led through the image."

Dudley’s photographic work has taken him all over the United States from coast to coast including Alaska. He’s enjoyed working from rain forest to desert habitat and he’s welcomed the challenges. He has worked with all kinds of subjects from the Grizzly bears of Yellowstone in the west to delicate gossamer winged butterflies in the boreal bogs of the north. Both require a certain level of patience and knowledge both of which Dudley has plenty of.

Dudley Edmondson

Dudley Edmondson

Recently Dudley began focusing his lens on people of color who enjoy nature and the outdoors. In his travels around the country over the last two and a half decades he noticed how often he found himself to be the only African American or person of color in many of the outdoor wilderness settings he found himself working or vacationing in and it concerned him.

Four years ago he began working on "Black and Brown Faces in Americas Wild Places" in an attempt to find other African Americans around the nation who shared his love for nature and the outdoors. Pleasantly he found several - many of whom he now considers friends. Not until 2005 had he ever been on an outdoor adventure entirely in the company of African Americans. For him it was a life affirming experience and one that he will never forget. He plans to continue trying to encourage other African Americans and people of color to discover the beauty and solitude of the natural world through his photographic and writing work. "Nature without question is for everyone. It knows no race, creed or gender and is cheaper that any therapist you could ever hire."