Peter Lik
Encyclopedia
Peter Lik is a self-taught Australian landscape photographer. While traveling in Alaska in 1984, Lik began to experiment with panoramic cameras. He is known for his limited editions and his work has been compared to that of legendary photographer Ansel Adams
. Lik is regarded as an adventurer as well as a photographer due to the risks he will take to get "the shot."
. He took his very first photo when given a Kodak
Brownie
box camera
on his eighth birthday. The shot was of a dewy spider web in the garden of the family home. As a child, Lik would take his camera on family vacations and take photos of country scenes and the ocean. This practice would continue when he became a youth and took road trips out of the city and into the wilds of Australia, often with his lifelong friend and fellow professional photographer Michael Plumridge.
Back in Australia, Lik spent the early 1990s working for Tourism Queensland shooting the entire state. In the mid 1990s he opened a post card stand in Cairns
, Queensland, featuring his photos, and soon realized his shots were extremely popular. In short order he started his own publishing company and opened his first gallery in the town.
The American landscapes still held his fascination and he decided to move to the U.S. permanently, finally settling in Las Vegas where he opened his own business, LIK USA. He went on to open four galleries in Las Vegas, nine others across the U.S., and one in Noosa Heads
, Queensland. In December 2010, his photograph "One" made history when it sold for US$1,000,000.
On 3 May 2011, "Ghost" (taken in Antelope Canyon, Arizona) was inducted into a special exhibition of nature photography at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History as a result of winning the Art in Nature category of the 2010 Windland Smith Rice International Awards for Nature’s Best Photography.
, which was broadcast 28 June 2009.
's Peacock Productions to star in an action-adventure reality series. In January 2011, the NBC-owned cable network The Weather Channel
(TWC) announced that this series would air on TWC and be titled From the Edge with Peter Lik, which debuted on 31 March 2011. The series follows him as he travels across the various landscapes of the United States, battling the elements of weather along the way in an attempt to get the best shots. Lik has also served as a special contributor for TWC, providing segments from his frequent travels to weather-impacted locales.
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
. Lik is regarded as an adventurer as well as a photographer due to the risks he will take to get "the shot."
Early life
Lik was born to Czech parents who migrated to Australia after World War II as refugees, eventually settling in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. He took his very first photo when given a Kodak
Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
Brownie
Brownie (camera)
Brownie is the name of a long-running and extremely popular series of simple and inexpensive cameras made by Eastman Kodak. The Brownie popularized low-cost photography and introduced the concept of the snapshot. The first Brownie, introduced in February, 1900, was a very basic cardboard box camera...
box camera
Box camera
The box camera is, with the exception of the pin hole camera, a camera in its simplest form. The form of the classic box camera is no more than a cardboard or plastic box with a lens in one end and film at the other. A simple box camera has only a single element meniscus fixed focus lens and...
on his eighth birthday. The shot was of a dewy spider web in the garden of the family home. As a child, Lik would take his camera on family vacations and take photos of country scenes and the ocean. This practice would continue when he became a youth and took road trips out of the city and into the wilds of Australia, often with his lifelong friend and fellow professional photographer Michael Plumridge.
Career
In 1984, Lik made his first trip to America and undertook to photograph all 50 states. The project was finally completed five years later and became his book "Spirit of America."Back in Australia, Lik spent the early 1990s working for Tourism Queensland shooting the entire state. In the mid 1990s he opened a post card stand in Cairns
Cairns, Queensland
Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...
, Queensland, featuring his photos, and soon realized his shots were extremely popular. In short order he started his own publishing company and opened his first gallery in the town.
The American landscapes still held his fascination and he decided to move to the U.S. permanently, finally settling in Las Vegas where he opened his own business, LIK USA. He went on to open four galleries in Las Vegas, nine others across the U.S., and one in Noosa Heads
Noosa Heads, Queensland
Noosa Heads is one of the three major centres of the Noosa region on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is located north of Brisbane, the state's capital. The Noosa River forms one boundary of the town, the headlands of the Noosa National Park another...
, Queensland. In December 2010, his photograph "One" made history when it sold for US$1,000,000.
On 3 May 2011, "Ghost" (taken in Antelope Canyon, Arizona) was inducted into a special exhibition of nature photography at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History as a result of winning the Art in Nature category of the 2010 Windland Smith Rice International Awards for Nature’s Best Photography.
In television and film
A signed and numbered print of Lik's "Beyond Paradise" was purchased for US$5,000 by the Harrisons, the owners of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, in "Chumlee's Dummies," the seventh episode of the third season of the History Channel reality television series Pawn StarsPawn Stars
Pawn Stars is an American reality television series on the History Channel, produced in Manhattan by Leftfield Pictures. The series is filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it chronicles the daily activities at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, a 24-hour family business operated by patriarch Richard...
, which was broadcast 28 June 2009.
From the Edge with Peter Lik
In early 2010, Lik signed an agreement with NBCNBC
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...
's Peacock Productions to star in an action-adventure reality series. In January 2011, the NBC-owned cable network The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel is a US cable and satellite television network since May 2, 1982, that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, along with entertainment programming related to weather 24 hours a day...
(TWC) announced that this series would air on TWC and be titled From the Edge with Peter Lik, which debuted on 31 March 2011. The series follows him as he travels across the various landscapes of the United States, battling the elements of weather along the way in an attempt to get the best shots. Lik has also served as a special contributor for TWC, providing segments from his frequent travels to weather-impacted locales.
Publications
- Peter Lik's 25th Anniversary Big Book (2009)
- Peter Lik Catalogue: Volume 2
- Australia: Images of a Timeless Land – ISBN 978-1-876-58503-7 (2004)
- Australia: Images of a Timeless Land – (Limited Edition) ISBN 187658503-x
- Las Vegas and Beyond – ISBN 187658528-5 (copyright TX0006515928) (2006)
- Las Vegas and Beyond – ISBN 187658529-3
- Las Vegas: Beyond the Neon – ISBN 978-0-578-01815-7 (2010)
- Spirit of America – ISBN 187658515-3 (copyright VA0001233027) (2003)
- Spirit of America – (Limited Edition) ISBN 187658515-3
- Maui:Hawaiian Paradise – ISBN 187658517-x (copyright TX0006521005) (2005)
- Hawaii: The Aloha Spirit – ISBN 978-0-9797927-0-0 (2007)
- San Francisco – ISBN 187658507-2 (copyright VA0001247207) (2001)
Awards
- 1999 Fuji ACMP Australian Photographer's Collection 6
- 2002 AIPP: Image: Bodie Ghost Town Award: Silver With Distinction.
- 2003 Fuji ACMP Australian Photographer's Collection 9
- 2004 AIPP – Image: The Opera, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2004 AIPP – Image: Spirits of Stone, Award: Sliver
- 2004 AIPP – Image: Valley of the Shadows, Award: Sliver
- 2004 AIPP Queensland – Image: Bamboo, Award: Sliver
- 2004 AIPP Queensland – Image: The Opera, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2005 PPA – Image: Ancient Spirit, Award: Two Merits
- 2005 PPA – Image: Bamboo, Award: Merit
- 2006 PPA – Image: Angel's Heart, Award: Two Merits
- 2006 PPA – Image: Ghost, Award: Merit
- 2006 PPA – Image: The Opera, Award: Merit
- 2007 AIPP – Image: Ghost, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2007 AIPP – Image: Icy Waters, Award: Sliver
- 2007 AIPP – Image: Angel's Heart, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2007 AIPP – Image: Heaven on Earth, Award: Sliver
- 2007 PPA – Image: Heaven on Earth, Award: Merit
- 2007 PPA – Image: Blush, Award: Merit
- 2007 PPA – Image: Turn Scarlet, Award: Merit
- 2008 NANPA – Image: Tranquility, Award: Acceptance
- 2008 AIPP – Image: Impression, Award: Sliver
- 2008 AIPP – Image: Misty Blue, Award: Sliver
- 2008 AIPP Queensland – Image: Turn Scarlet, Award: Sliver
- 2008 AIPP Queensland – Image: Guardian Angel, Award: Sliver
- 2008 AIPP Queensland – Image: Secret Veil, Award: Sliver
- 2008 AIPP Queensland – Image: Hidden Temple, Award: Sliver
- 2008 PPA – Image: Impression, Award: Merit
- 2008 BLACK & WHITE: Single Image – Image: Into The Myst, Award: Merit
- 2008 PPA – Image: Misty Blue, Award: Merit
- 2008 NANPA – Image: The Jetty, Award: Acceptance
- 2008 RPS – Image: Atlantic Reflections, Award: Bronze
- 2009 IAPP – Image: Beginnings, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 IAPP – Image: Impending Storm, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 IAPP – Image: Misty Harbour, Award: 2nd Place: Landscapes
- 2009 PSA – Image: Atlantic Reflections, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 PSA – Image: Harmony, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 PSA – Image: Atlantic Reflections, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 AIPP – Image: Overseas, Award: Sliver
- 2009 AIPP – Image: Misty Harbour, Award: Sliver
- 2009 AIPP Queensland: Professional Photography Awards – Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: Silver
- 2009 AIPP Queensland: Professional Photography Awards – Image: Dark Side of the Moon, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2009 AIPP Queensland – Professional Photography Awards, Image: Dark Side of the Moon, Award: Silver
- 2009 AIPP Queensland: Professional Photography Awards, Image: Mystic Valley, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2009 IPA – Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: 2nd Place: Landscapes
- 2009 PDN – The Great Outdoors, Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: 1st Place: Nature
- 2009 PSNZ – Image: Beyond Paradise, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 PSNZ – Image: Beyond Paradise, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 PSNZ – Image: Beyond Paradise, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 POP PHOTO – Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: Winner: Nature
- 2009 RPS – Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 RPS – Image: Candy Bark, Award: Acceptance
- 2009 APPA Photography Book Award
- 2010 AIPP – Image: Tree of Life, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2010 AIPP – Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: Silver
- 2010 AIPP – Image: 25 Year Anniversary Book, Award: Book of the Year
- 2010 AIPP Queensland – Image: 25 Year Anniversary Book, Award: Silver With Distinction
- 2010 AIPP Queensland – Image: Tree of Life, Award: Sliver
- 2010 AIPP Queensland – Image: Sacred Sunrise, Award: Sliver
- 2010 COLOR Portfolio Contest – Image: Blue Pier, Award: Bronze
- 2010 APA – Image: Tree of Life, Award: Merit
- 2010 BIPP – Award: Fellowship
- 2010 BIPP – Image: Tree of Life, Award: Merit
- 2010 BIPP – Image: Sacred Sunrise, Award: Silver
- 2010 BIPP – Image: Deep Forest, Award: Merit
- 2010 BIPP – Image: Pele's Whisper, Award: Merit
- 2010 International Aperture Awards: Landscape – Image: Blue Pier, Award: Bronze
- 2010 RPS – Award: Fellowship
- 2011 NANPA – Image: Pristine