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Kathryn Kolb is a free-lance photographer working in the Atlanta area since 1985. Born in Indiana, she grew up in the rural surroundings of Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1983 she received a BA in History from Emory University in Atlanta, concentrating on ancient Europe and the Near East. In 1984-5 she took photography classes at the Southeastern Center for the Arts, in Atlanta. Although Kolb has no formal training as an artist, visual artists are found in both her parents' families, and her paternal grandfather, Harold H. Kolb, was a noted watercolor painter working in Boston and the New England area.
Kolb's editorial work is characterized by an artistic style with strong graphic elements. Her photographs have been widely published and have appeared in Smithsonian, Veranda, Rolling Stone, Nature Conservancy, Orion magazine and others. Special photographic projects Kolb accomplished include: a series of environmental portraits of regional artists for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution; portraits of formerly homeless men and women who regained successful lives through Atlanta's Samaritan House, and self-published calendars of Atlanta and Athens musicians, including artists REM and Indigo Girls. In 1996, Kolb photographed a medical mission to rural communities in the Dominican Republic. In 1999, through Soho-Myriad Gallery (Atlanta), Kolb was commissioned to create non-traditional landmark portraits of the University of Virginia campus for a permanent installation at the University's Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville.
Since the mid-nineties Kolb has shifted toward fine art images of natural forms and landscapes. Kolb's fine art series include black & white and color photographs of landscapes, trees and other plants from diverse natural environments. Her most recent work, mostly in color, explores abstract constructions that often seem more akin to painting than photography. As photographer, Kolb stays true to the simplest form of her medium - all works are straightforward, unmanipulated images, and she uses no digital cameras or printing techniques. Kolb takes all photographs with a Hasselblad medium format camera and prints on traditional enlargers. Her fine art photographs can be found in numerous private and institutional collections including those of the Georgia Museum in Athens, GA, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, King & Spalding, Atlanta, Georgia Conservancy, and the City of Atlanta.
In additional to fine art images of natural subjects, Kolb continues to do environmentally- oriented assignment work. In 1999-2001, Kolb produced calendars for Georgia Forestwatch, featuring unprotected areas in Georgia's national forests. Her work was included in the Sierra Club's Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry, and she illustrated an article on kudzu for the October 2000 issue of Smithsonian. Two of her Tree Series photographs were featured in the Oct/Nov 2001 Veranda magazine. The Wilderness Society commissioned Kolb to photograph roadless and wilderness areas of the southeastern Appalachians for the publication, Why Wilderness? What the Remaining Wildlands of the Southern Appalachians Mean to the People of the Southeast, published in 2004. These photographs along with others from the southeastern region were exhibited at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History during the summer of 2005.
Kolb's interest in the environment goes beyond her visual aesthetic. Growing up in rural Virginia and with maternal family roots in the western North Carolina mountains, she developed a strong appreciation of the value of natural lands. Since the early nineties Kolb has worked to preserve and restore native forest environments and care for urban trees and greenspace. She helped to produce new tree ordinances for DeKalb County and the City of Atlanta, served for 4 years on the board of Georgia Forestwatch, and has worked with Trees Atlanta. She helped the City of Atlanta acquire a greenspace in her neighborhood, and she assists the Lake Claire Neighborhood Association on a project to restore the Frazer Forest. Most recently, Kolb has helped to create and administer the Keeping It Wild program with The Wilderness Society.
Kolb's fine art photographs are currently available through Thomas Deans Fine Art in Atlanta; Schedler Fine Art, Birmingham, AL; Scott White Contemporary Art, San Diego; Artstudio 101, Scottsdale, AZ.
Editorial/Commercial/Fine Art Photography 1987-present
Environmental
The Wilderness Society
Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition
Pacific Rivers Council
Southern Environmental Law Center
The Nature Conservancy
The Georgia Conservancy
Georgia Forestwatch
The Sierra Club
Trust for Public Land
Magazines/Newspapers
Veranda
Orion
Smithsonian
Outside
Request
People
Rolling Stone
American Theater
The Village Voice
Chronicle of Higher Education
Atlanta Magazine
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
The Chicago Sun-Times
Institutions (Atlanta)
Shepherd Center
Tanner Medical Center
Ridgeview Institute
INPO
The Carter Center
Emory University
Georgia TECH
Georgia State University
Agnes Scott College
Arts/Entertainment/Misc
Zyrtec (TV commercial), Los Angeles
Routledge Press, London/NY NY
CAM entertainment, Atlanta
Times 3, graphic design, Atlanta
Horizon Theater Company, Atlanta
Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta
Exhibitions
Thomas Deans Fine Art, 2006; solo, 2005
Hartsfield-Jackson Intn'l Airport, Atrium Gallery, solo, 2006
City Hall East Gallery, 2006
Thomasville Cultural Center, Thomasville, GA, 2006
Schedler Fine Art, Birmingham, AL, 2005
Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, Valdosta, GA 2005
Krause Gallery, Atlanta 2004-05
Galerie MC, Atlanta, 2004
Melissa & Jerome Walker, Atlanta 2003-4
Swan Coach House, Atlanta 2003
Roswell Fine arts Center, 2003
City Issue Gallery, 2001,02
Soho-Myriad Gallery, Atlanta, 2000, 01,02 ,1998
City Hall Gallery East. Atlanta, 1999
Gwinnett Fine Arts Center, Atlanta, 1998
The Food Business, Decatur, GA 1997
Atlanta Photography Gallery, Atlanta 1993,97
Camille Love Gallery, Atlanta, 1996
League of Finnish American Societies
Helsinki, Finland 1995
Trinity Gallery, Atlanta, 1993
The Emory Gallery, Atlanta 1992
Atlanta University Gallery, Atlanta 1987
Gallery Two Nine One, Atlanta 1986
Collections
King and Spalding
Georgia Conservancy
John and Dianne Smoltz
Gerald and Lyn Grinstein
City of Atlanta
Georgia Museum. Athens, GA
M. Rose, Netherlands
Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Atlanta
Calloway Gardens, GA
Goizueta Business School, Emory University
Southerland, Asbill & Brennan, Atlanta
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Atlanta
Parker, Johnson, Cook & Dunlevie, Atlanta
The Southern Company, Atlanta
Boar's Head Inn, Univ. of Virginia
Georgia TECH, Atlanta
Mark Hopkins Hotel, San Francisco
Hyatt Regency, Muscat, Oman
Grand Hyatt, Atlanta
Suisse Hotel, Chicago
Mandarin Hotel, NY
Omni CNN Center, Atlanta
Publications
Why Wilderness? The Wilderness Society, Washington, DC, 2004
Georgia's Last Wild Places Calendar Georgia Forestwatch, Ellijay, GA , 2001,
2000,1999
1996 Trees Calendar; Times 3 graphic design, Atlanta, 1996
Clearcut, The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry, The Sierra Club/Earth Island
Press, San Francisco, 1993
I Love You Enough to Let You Go; Printed Matter, Inc. Atlanta, 1990
Can You See Me? Images of Atlanta's Homeless; Marmac Publishing Co. Atlanta 1986
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