Al Satterwhite

Career

Al Satterwhite began work­ing as a pho­tog­ra­pher for a major Florida news­pa­per while still a stu­dent, cov­er­ing major sto­ries through­out the south­east­ern United States.
After spend­ing a year as the per­sonal pho­tog­ra­pher to the Governor of Florida, he launched a free­lance pho­tog­ra­phy career. Over the fol­low­ing ten years, he worked for nearly every major mag­a­zine, includ­ing Car & Driver, Fortune, Geo, Life, Look, Money, Newsweek, People, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Time, and Travel & Leisure, among many others. 

Visual Style

In 1980, he moved to New York to estab­lish his own pro­duc­tion com­pany and focus on adver­tis­ing work. During the fol­low­ing fif­teen years, his adver­tis­ing pho­tog­ra­phy became rec­og­nized for its richly sat­u­rated col­ors and strong sense of design and com­po­si­tion. Clients included American Express, Coca-​Cola, Eastman Kodak, Nikon, Porsche, Polaroid, Saab, Sony, Tuborg, Universal Studios, and many oth­ers.
He also worked as a con­sul­tant for Kodak for sev­eral years and taught at Boston University, the Brooks Institute of Photography, the Hallmark Institute of Photography, ASMP, NYU/​Tisch School of the Arts, and PhotoExpos in Los Angeles and New York. 

Major Series and Works

His pho­tographs are part of the per­ma­nent col­lec­tions of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as numer­ous pri­vate col­lec­tions.
In recent years, he has focused his atten­tion on film­mak­ing. He has reg­u­larly received awards as a direc­tor for his adver­tis­ing work, fea­ture films, and short films. 

Recognition

He is cur­rently work­ing on sev­eral book and museum exhi­bi­tion projects.
Al Satterwhite lives in New York with his wife and their two cats.

Reading the Work

Al Satterwhite’s work finds its bal­ance in a nar­ra­tive vision shaped by American cul­ture, sport, travel, and every­day life. It stands out through direct com­po­si­tion, a strong human pres­ence, and an abil­ity to trans­form a real moment into an iconic image. His pho­tographs ben­e­fit from care­ful obser­va­tion: a com­po­si­tional detail, a par­tic­u­lar dis­tance from the sub­ject, a qual­ity of light, or a mate­r­ial tex­ture is often enough to reveal their depth.