Christopher Voelker
Encyclopedia
Christopher Voelker is an American
photographer.
user due to a spinal cord
injury (quadriplegia
) from a high-speed, motocross
accident at 16.
He is predominantly self-taught, freelance studio photographer specializing in capturing counter-points of the human landscape in large-format (Hasselblad
and Linhof
), black and white. Hand developed prints which are an interpretation of his negatives are characterized by starkly voluptuous contrasts of body and space. The prints are expressions of something that is both personal and available for individual interpretation. With the arrival of digital photography it was a challenge that Voelker embraced. His true love, however, remains the mystery of emulsion; and film is the medium he reserves for his artistic output.
Actress, choreographer, and director Debbie Allen
described Voelker's work as: filled with emotion, beauty and thought. He shadows the light and lights the dark that speaks with image, like the eye of poetry to the soul. and actor Robert David Hall
(CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
) said: I have my photograph shot constantly and normally, I hate it... Working with Christopher has been a loose and joyful collaboration.
, Paramount
, Touchstone
, NBC
, CBS
, Lorimar Productions
, UPN
, WB
and CW
networks. Voelker has also photographed such artists as Mick Fleetwood
, Billy Zane
, Carmen Electra
, Robert David Hall
, Christina Applegate
, Bow Wow, Beyonce, Chris Burke
, Brandy
, Chingy
, Omarion
, Ruben Studdard
, Fantasia, Angela Simmons and Tony Orlando
.
, Angeleno Magazine, Zink Magazine
, 944 Magazine
, New Mobility magazine
, Mobilitá Magazine, Jewel Magazine and RYK Magasine.
He has developed a penchant for photographing bookjackets and has completed over 20 different covers ranging from Mystery writers to a book by Holly Robinson Peete on a Woman’s guide to watching & understanding NFL football, titled Get your Own Damn Beer I’m watching The Game.
His photographs have been exhibited in both Los Angeles and New York
and will be featured in his upcoming book of black-and-white studio nudes due to be published in November 2008 by Dennis McMillan Publications.
covers and intimate portraits. He has spent the last 15 years at Voelker Studio, a synergistic space in Northridge
, California. Going through different physical experiences has given Voelker unique empathy and insights into things that other people don't see. He has become a photographer of humans. Voelker is currently compiling "Portraits of Ability". The book, set for publication in 2009 celebrates the physicality of power as realized by personal accomplishment of disabled people.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer.
General information
Voelker is a full-time wheelchairWheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
user due to a spinal cord
Spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...
injury (quadriplegia
Quadriplegia
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is paralysis caused by illness or injury to a human that results in the partial or total loss of use of all their limbs and torso; paraplegia is similar but does not affect the arms...
) from a high-speed, motocross
Motocross
Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...
accident at 16.
He is predominantly self-taught, freelance studio photographer specializing in capturing counter-points of the human landscape in large-format (Hasselblad
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
and Linhof
Linhof
Linhof is a German company, founded in Munich in 1887 by Valentin Linhof. The company is well known for making premium rollfilm and large format film cameras...
), black and white. Hand developed prints which are an interpretation of his negatives are characterized by starkly voluptuous contrasts of body and space. The prints are expressions of something that is both personal and available for individual interpretation. With the arrival of digital photography it was a challenge that Voelker embraced. His true love, however, remains the mystery of emulsion; and film is the medium he reserves for his artistic output.
Actress, choreographer, and director Debbie Allen
Debbie Allen
Deborrah Kaye “Debbie” Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, television producer, and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities...
described Voelker's work as: filled with emotion, beauty and thought. He shadows the light and lights the dark that speaks with image, like the eye of poetry to the soul. and actor Robert David Hall
Robert David Hall
Robert David Hall is an American actor, best known for his role as coroner Dr. Albert Robbins M.D. on the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Biography:...
(CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
) said: I have my photograph shot constantly and normally, I hate it... Working with Christopher has been a loose and joyful collaboration.
Major studios and TV networks
He became the first photographer with a mobility impairment to work professionally for major studios and TV networks such as UniversalUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, Touchstone
Touchstone
A touchstone is a small tablet of dark stone such as fieldstone, slate, or lydite, used for assaying precious metal alloys. It has a finely grained surface on which soft metals leave a visible trace.-History:The touchstone was used in ancient Greece...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Lorimar Productions
Lorimar Productions
Lorimar, later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American television production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993...
, UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
, WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
and CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
networks. Voelker has also photographed such artists as Mick Fleetwood
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac...
, Billy Zane
Billy Zane
William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
, Carmen Electra
Carmen Electra
Tara Leigh Patrick , professionally known as Carmen Electra, is an American glamour model, actress, television personality, singer, and dancer...
, Robert David Hall
Robert David Hall
Robert David Hall is an American actor, best known for his role as coroner Dr. Albert Robbins M.D. on the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.-Biography:...
, Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations...
, Bow Wow, Beyonce, Chris Burke
Chris Burke (actor)
Christopher Joseph "Chris" Burke is an American actor, living with Down syndrome, who has become best known for his character Charles "Corky" Thacher on the television series Life Goes On.- Early Years :...
, Brandy
Brandy (entertainer)
Brandy Rayana Norwood , known professionally as Brandy, is an American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and dancer. In 2009, she introduced her rap alter-ego Bran'Nu....
, Chingy
Chingy
Howard Bailey, Jr. , better known by his stage name Chingy, is an American rapper.Chingy grew up in the Walnut Park section of St. Louis and began rapping in earnest in his late teens...
, Omarion
Omarion
Omari Ishmael Grandberry better known as Omarion, is an American R&B singer, actor, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and former lead singer of the R&B group, B2K. Omarion was spotted at a young age by a manager, Christopher B. Stokes, who took a liking to his vocal abilities...
, Ruben Studdard
Ruben Studdard
Christopher Theodore Ruben Studdard , best known as Ruben Studdard, is an American R&B, pop, and gospel singer. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol...
, Fantasia, Angela Simmons and Tony Orlando
Tony Orlando
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis , better known as Tony Orlando, is an American show business professional, best known as the lead singer of the group Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s. Discovered by producer Don Kirshner, Orlando had songs on the charts in 1961 when he was 16, "Halfway to...
.
Publications
His work has appeared on national and international covers for magazines along with movie posters including Hollywood Reporter, V Life Magazine, Teen People, TV GuideTV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, Angeleno Magazine, Zink Magazine
Zink magazine
Zink is an American magazine that showcases emerging and reinvented talent in the world of international fashion, beauty, design, art and entertainment.- History :...
, 944 Magazine
944 Magazine
944 Magazine was a regional fashion, entertainment and lifestyle publication that operated in the United States from 2001 to 2011.-History:The original 944 Media company was founded in 2002 by Mark Gorzen and Marc Lotenberg....
, New Mobility magazine
New Mobility magazine
New Mobility, launched in 1989, is a United States-based magazine for active wheelchair users. This monthly publication covers health, disability rights, adaptive technology and lifestyle topics such as recreation, travel, the arts, relationships, sexuality, parenting, employment and home...
, Mobilitá Magazine, Jewel Magazine and RYK Magasine.
He has developed a penchant for photographing bookjackets and has completed over 20 different covers ranging from Mystery writers to a book by Holly Robinson Peete on a Woman’s guide to watching & understanding NFL football, titled Get your Own Damn Beer I’m watching The Game.
His photographs have been exhibited in both Los Angeles and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and will be featured in his upcoming book of black-and-white studio nudes due to be published in November 2008 by Dennis McMillan Publications.
Voelker Studio
Voelker worked for network gallery sessions, albumAlbum
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
covers and intimate portraits. He has spent the last 15 years at Voelker Studio, a synergistic space in Northridge
Northridge
Northridge is the name of some places in the United States of America:*Northridge, Los Angeles, California, a community in California's San Fernando Valley** California State University, Northridge** The Northridge earthquake of 1994...
, California. Going through different physical experiences has given Voelker unique empathy and insights into things that other people don't see. He has become a photographer of humans. Voelker is currently compiling "Portraits of Ability". The book, set for publication in 2009 celebrates the physicality of power as realized by personal accomplishment of disabled people.
Awards and prizes
- 1984 – Photographer of the Year for his work in the Journalism State of California Magazine
- 2002 – Annual Anthony Award for Best Cover, Print Magazine Design for the quality of his work