About Arthur Morris
Arthur Morris is a free-lance nature photographer, writer, educator, and trip leader specializing in birds. He is widely recognized as the world’s premier bird photographer and as one of the top nature photography educators of his time. In his books and on his web site and blog, his record of sharing his photographic and avian knowledge is unmatched.
He taught elementary school in New York City for twenty-three years. For eight years he conducted the shorebird survey at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge for The International Shorebird Surveys, Manomet, MA. Eight of his images have been honored in various BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competitions. His Fire in the Mist image is the wraparound cover art for Light on the Earth, a compilation of twenty years of the best winning and commended images in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions. His “Gannet’s In Love” was awarded first place in the “Professional Birds” category of the 2009 National Wildlife Federation contest and first place in “Art in Nature” in the 2009 Nature’s Best contest. He has had numerous honored images in each of those contests.
His first major photography book, “The Art of Bird Photography,” was released by Amphoto, NY in 1998 and quickly became the classic how-to work on bird photography. Virtually all of today’s top-flight bird photographers learned the basics from this work. After selling more than 32,000 copies, Amphoto let the book go out of print. BIRDS AS ART reprinted 10,000 copies and the soft-cover edition is available today through the BIRDS AS ART On-Line store via the preceding link. The all-new digital continuation, “The Art of Bird Photography II (916 pages on CD only), was released in 2008. It has sold more than 4,000 copies. The Digital Basics PDF has been the PhotoShop cookbook for thousands of photographers who have learned the BIRDS AS ART digital workflow from it in short order.
In April 1995, Mr. Morris became a Canon contract photographer, part of their “Explorers of Light” program; after 18 years of stalwart service, he now enjoys the title Explorer of Light Emeritus. Four of his images are featured in the Canon “EF Lens Work II” book. He appeared in a Canon EOS 1N television commercial that aired worldwide and was featured in six episodes of the “Canon Photo Safari” television program.
A gallery exhibit of his work hung at the prestigious Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, NY in the summer of 1999. Sixty-four of his images were featured in an exhibit entitled “On a Wing and a Prayer; The Migratory Birds of North America.” The exhibit opened in April 2001 and because of budget cut is still in place at the National Zoo in Washington, DC today. An exhibit of 32 canvas prints hung at Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida in early 2010. An exhibition of his work hung for a month aat the Museum of American Bird Art at Mass Audubon in the fall of 2013. All of these exhibits were generously sponsored by Canon USA.
B&H was the primary sponsor of Arthur’s solo, career retrospective, 67-image exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum in 2017.
More than 10,000 of Artie’s images have been published in American Birds, Audubon, Birding, Birder’s World, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Duck’s Unlimted, Florida Wildlife and Nature, Living Bird, National Geographic, Natural History, Nature Photographer, Outdoor Photographer, PHOTOgraphic, Ranger Rick, Wildbird, and in countless other magazines, as well as in hundreds of books and calendars. More than 150 photo-illustrated feature articles by and about him have appeared in a wide variety of publications worldwide.
Artie is a founding member of NANPA, was a keynote speaker at the Charlotte Summit, is a NANPA fellow, and was honored with a NANPA Service Award in 2010 primarily for his work over many years with the NANPA High School and College scholarship programs.
He is a popular lecturer and presenter having conducted more than 200 slide and seminar programs during the past 20 years. If you are interested in having Artie speak to your group, please contact him via e-mail.
Currently living in Indian Lake Estates, FL, Artie now photographs, travels, speaks, and teaches extensively across North America and around the world.
