Michael Hudson

“If there’s a theme that runs through my photographs, it’s the theme of Beauty. I’m inspired by the quiet beauty of the landscape. In most of our ‘normal’ lives, we’re surrounded by traffic, noise of every kind, and a thousand other things that command our attention. My life is no exception. But what happens when I’m out making pictures, is that everything else fades away, leaving the simple beauty of the landscape in front of me. It becomes a spiritual experience, and revitalizes my soul.

“I often look for large, bold areas of color in my images. Years ago, when I was starting out, I used black and white film almost exclusively; color printing was expensive and difficult to do correctly. Today though, far more of my images are made in color than black and white. But, thanks to my monochrome ‘upbringing’, I still create all my images very selectively– there has to be a good reason to work in color.

“Photography literally means “light drawing” and without the right light, a photograph usually fails. I’ve been known to hike endlessly for hours, not eat all day, or to return to a scene year after year to capture it in the best light. Light is crucial to the landscape; it defines the land. The right light can transform a mundane scene into something extraordinary, if only for a few moments. And when, sometimes, it seems like you’re the only one to have witnessed that light, it’s truly awe inspiring.

“I’ve been coming to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park regularly for over ten years to create my landscape images. In 2015, I published “Under October Skies”, a coffee table book of some of my favorite landscape images from Autumn in Acadia.

Michael Hudson was born in Australia, and grew up in Australia, the United States, and in England. He currently lives near Chicago.