About Walter Arnold Photography
About the Artist
Walter Arnold is a self taught fine art photographer born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1981. Walter grew up in a creative and artistic family and spent most of his childhood in Elmira, New York. After living for years in Florida he settled in Hendersonville, North Carolina and now calls the mountains home.
After picking up his first digital SLR camera in 2006, Walter used the beauty of Western North Carolina to help train his creative eye, and hone his photographic skills. In 2009, he stumbled on an abandoned airplane graveyard in St. Augustine, Florida. Shooting the abandoned planes, he discovered his passion for abandonment photography. Since then he has focused on developing his own personal style of photography that he calls “The Art of Abandonment”.
Walter’s vision draws him to capture unusual and artistic scenes in places that others often pass by. He employs an artistic technique called High Dynamic Range photography with many of his images. By capturing multiple exposures ranging from dark to bright, his technique allows him to reveal a greater range of light and detail in a scene than could be captured with a single image. This, coupled with Walter’s creative interpretation of a scene, allows him to create non-traditional and sometimes surreal scenes that bring to life the forgotten locations that he explores.
Walter’s photography has received national and international recognition. Most notably, Hollywood movie director Ron Howard selected one of his images to inspire a short film When You Find Me. Howard chose the photograph out of almost 100,000 other entries to craft the setting of the movie. Walter has also worked with camera manufacturer Sigma, creating an image that was used in their AD campaign published in 25 international magazines.
Artist’s Statement
“I strive to create nontraditional images and scenes in locations that most people will never have the pleasure to see. I explore locations that have been abandoned and create collections of images that tell a story to the viewer, both as singular pictures and as a whole experience. These abandoned buildings and locations speak volumes when you enter them, even in their abandoned and decaying state. Every room you look into tells a story and every artifact from a bygone era holds years of meaning and lost purpose. I enjoy searching for beauty in uncommon places and by doing so, help to preserve the history, memory and spirit that still shines ever so faintly in the dust and decay of these modern ruins.”
Resume:
Feb 2008 – Winner PopPhoto.com Best of readers Gallery. “Abandoned Bus”.
April 2008 – Winner PopPhoto.com Best of readers Gallery. “From the Earth”
May 2009 – 2D Historic Preservation Art Copy Photography for Town of Big Flats NY. Produced life size images up to 12 feet long of the mural walls painted in every room of the Martha Robertshaw house.
December 2009 – Cover photo for novel “Lochloosa Lake” by Phil Hall
December 2009 – Featured images for blog article on the St. Augustine Airplane Graveyard on Environmental Graffiti.
March 2010 – 3D Art Copy Photography for gallery show “Unexpected Artists” Elmira NY
March 2010 – Featured Guest on Adorama.com TechTock Podcast. 45 minute interview about photography and HDRi. Interviewed by published High Dynamic Range photographer Jack Howard.
March 2010 – Cover image for Sunday issue of Hendersonville NC’s Times News Newspaper. Article/image of a fiery house explosion (no one injured!)
May 2010 – Gallery Showing titled: “Variant Visions” displayed at Arnot Art Museum – Elmira NY.
June 2010 – Live event photography for band “Big House Radio”. Images used online and in liner art for the band’s CD release.
July 2010 – Images used in the Western North Carolina Relocation Guide.
July 2010 – Image and video featured on Liberty Independent newspaper website. Grossinger’s Abandoned Resort
Oct 2010 - Elder Gallery “Carolina Salon des Refusés” – ‘Of Barkeeps Past’
Oct 2010 – Featured on concierge.com (via Conde Nast) and msnbc.com as cover image for article “Abandoned Places: Ghosts of Vacations Past” images used: “Grossinger’s Pool” “Airplane Graveyard”
Nov 2010 – Featured image used on all marketing materials (online and print) for Henderson County Art Council show “Carolina Thru a Lens”. “Eastatoe Falls”
Dec 2010 – 2nd place Winning photograph in “Carolina Thru a Lens” Competition sponsored by Henderson County Art’s Council. Image “From The Earth”.
Dec 2010 – Produced “The Art of Abandonment” DVD. Photos and videos of abandoned location by Walter Arnold Photography.
Jan 2011 – Cover story feature for Bold Life Magazine titled “Urban Explorer”. Both in print media and online.
Jan 2011 – Featured in video documentary about Urban Exploration for Bold Life Magazine. Starred in video, scored background music, and provided photographic stills.
Jan 2011 – Winner of Haywood County Tourism Development Authority and Blue Ridge Country photo contest. Image of Crabtree Falls will be used in tourism marketing materials both online and in print media.
Jan 2011 - Interview/Showcase on "A Place for Photographers" website
April 2011 - Featured in Sigma's newsletter, 'Explore the art of video content created with Sigma lenses'
April 2011 - Photo videos Featured on Sigma's Homepage/Blog, 'Great Vimeo projects made with Sigma Gear'
April 2011 - 3rd place winning image 'Of Bar Keeps Past' at Raleigh's Visual Art Exchange juried exhibition 'Unfettered'
May 2011- Best in Show winner at the Saluda NC Arts Festival
June 2011 - Headlining image on Yahoo.com homepage. Multiple images featured in Yahoo News story about Grossinger's Abandoned Resort.
July 2011 - Project Imagin8tion Grand Prize winner. Image "The Final View" selected by movie director Ron Howard as inspiration for film.
Sept 2011 - Third place in Spartanburg Artist's Guild annual juried exhibition for 2D Photography and Digital Art. "From the Earth" winning image.
May 2012 - Sigma Corporation commisioned image for use in "Popular Photography" and "Parenting" magazines. Used for 18-250mm lens ad campaign.
