JIM RICHARDSON

Jim Richardson's photography displays his ability to build visual narratives with context-rich images. His style moves seamlessly from people and places to landscapes and wildlife. His technique is story-driven, incorporating whatever visual tools will best bring concepts to life. Early work focused on documentary photography of rural life in the Midwest. Commissioned work for National Geographic Magazine ranged from water resource issues, agriculture, food and the challenge of feeding a growing world population, the historic impact of the King James Bible, the American West and extended coverage of Scotland. Assignments for National Geographic Traveler took him all the world.

Scotland has been a major focus of my work for over 25 years. Beginning with my first National Geographic story my coverage expanded, story by story, to virtually every region and many of the islands.

With work that covers over 50 years Jim Richardson's photographic coverage of life on the Great Plains is a major body of work about rural life. Beginning with documentary work in Rural Kansas in the early 1970s, he then focused on the small town of Cuba, Kansas for more than 40 years. His three years photograhing adolescent life in Rossville, Kansas resulted in his book High School, USA. Work for National Geograhic included the Tallgrass Prairie region of the Kansas Flint Hills, as well as wider coverage of the fate of the Great Plains as populations shift -- and decline in many places.

With a world population predicted to reach eleven billion by 2100 the problem of feeding our planet is a major issue, not just of growing enough food, but also doing so without destroying the environment. Jim Richardson's photography of food and agriculture around the world for National Geographic included stories on sustainable agriculture, genetically modified food (GMO), food safety, soil, heritage seeds and breeds, and the world's farmers.

The ancient Celtic realm is still alive, a vibrant part of world culture. Traditions and life ways endure in the seven Celtic nations: Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and Galicia. These images by Jim Richardson, shot on assignment for National Geographic, illustrate the rich life and landscapes out along the Atlantic fringe of Europe.