Michael Freeman was born in England in 1945, studied at Oxford University, and then worked in advertising in London for six years. In 1971 he made the break from advertising to travel up the Amazon. The resulting pictures were used extensively by Time-Life Books for the first book in a series called The World's Wild Places. With encouragement from Time-Life Books, he began his photographic career in 1973. (Show Photo)
As the principal photographer for the Smithsonian Magazine for many years, Freeman's work has been widely published internationally in all major magazines, including GEO, the Sunday Times Magazine, Smithsonian, Life, International Wildlife, Stern, Paris-Match, the Telegraph Magazine, the Observer, the Independent, Design Magazine, GQ Magazine, National Geographic, Omni, Conde Nast Traveler, Illustrated London News, Merian, Newsweek, Asahi Shimbum and many others.
He specializes in three distinct areas: travel reportage, architecture and special effects. Following a book assignment for Time-Life (Wayfarers of the Thai Forest for the Peoples of the Wild series), he has made a specialty of Southeast Asia, making frequent trips to the region from his London base. In 1990, Houghton Mifflin in the United States published his book on Cambodia, Angkor: The Hidden Glories ("An invaluable, breathtakingly beautiful record," Publishers Weekly; "A remarkable book, a superb evocation", Wall Street Journal) - the first on the temples in more than 20 years. Following this, he worked on a series of similar books, including Palaces of the Gods, Ancient Capitals of Thailand and Palaces of Bangkok.
His architectural work includes a series of books for several publishers including Rizzoli, Houghton Mifflin, Stewart Tabori & Chang, and Thames & Hudson. The most prominent titles are Shaker: Life Work and Art, Colonial, Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks, Oriental Style and American Masterworks: The Twentieth Century House. He is currently working on a series of books covering the world's sacred places.
In his special effects work, used to illustrate subjects as diverse as medicine, space sciences, particle physics and the motion picture special effects industry, Freeman uses a variety of complex technical procedures, both electronic and optical. His reportage in this area includes a story on immunology and another on the Lucasfilm studios in California.
Michael Freeman is also the author of 23 books on photography, published in several languages. His best-selling volume - The 35mm Handbook - has sold more than 700,000 copies worldwide. For the Photography Workshop series, he was awarded the Prix Louis Philippe Clerc by the French Ministry of Culture. He was a consultant for, and appeared in, BBC Television's photography series Snap. He also designed, wrote and continues to supervise the British Open College of the Arts photography courses.
