Miki Johnson wrote a story about (and conducted a video interview with) Art Wolfe and Jim Martin, released yesterday on the liveBooks blog. Art is a World-renowned conservation and fine art photographer, and Jim is executive director of Art Wolfe Inc.

I recently went up to Seattle to visit Art and Jim, and get a tour of their operation. We ended up going to lunch, spending some time talking about tequila, but most of the time talking about how they are changing their business model, in part, by selling Art’s stock images themselves, via PhotoShelter.

During my tour through his gallery and studio, I realized just how diverse Art is in terms of his work (he shoots more than just “Fur and Feathers”), and his business model, which in addition to stock, includes books, a television show, classroom workshops and lectures, and in-the-field shooting workshops to crazy and dangerous cold arctic places.

Art’s studio comes complete with a full classroom, with computers on every desk. I immediately envisioned PhotoShelter training sessions being conducted there. Hmmm… could happen. If you like that idea and think you would attend, send me a note.

Some other really cool photographers also use Art’s studio to conduct workshops, too.

One really cool opportunity that just opened up is a 4-day “Master Class with David Alan Harvey,” coming up pretty soon – April 11-15, 2009. If you ever wanted to spend some quality time with someone like DAH (member of Magnum, his work frequently appearing in National Geographic), here’s an opportunity.

More info on that here:
http://store.artwolfe.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=175

If you’re ever in Seattle, make a visit to the SODO neighborhood and check out his gallery. It’s worth going out of your way just to see all the nice huge prints on display.

At lunch, I suggested that he needed to add a bottle of Don Julio 1942 to his tequila collection. It might make his trips to remote arctic regions a little warmer.

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