Michael Harris was born in a U.S. Army Prison infirmary at Fort Crowder, Missouri in 1956. An undiagnosed dyslectic he spent his formative years without the skills to live up to the expectations of his father, a university professor of ornithology. His father’s passion required the family to travel summers throughout the National Parks of the west and to many foreign lands in the never- ending quest for the next new bird. Isolated from friends and misunderstood by his parents Michael became withdrawn. With exposure to one beautiful national park after another, he slowly developed a sensitive and very intimate Vision of the world at large.

In high school he found kids his own age as difficult to deal with as his parents and consequently spent most of his time alone at the beach or up a tree. At Arcata High he enrolled in a photography class with Miss Smith and was rewarded with the best grades she had given in thirty years of teaching. Encouraged, in 1977 he took a workshop in Yosemite with Ansel Adams, Morley Baer, Yousuf Karsh, among others. Association with such great photographers at an early age was a turning point and gave him the confidence to use photography as a tool to explore and develop his own way of seeing the world. Having a way to visually express his feelings was emancipating, enabling Michael to find sanity in an insane world.

Black and White Photography