Sam Abell has dedicated his 30-year career to achieving artistic expression through documentary photography. He has pursued his goals primarily through lengthy, in-depth coverage for magazines and books. At the same time, he has maintained a career as an artist, teacher, and author.

In addition to his photography, Sam is a contributing essayist for National Public Radio and director of the Center for Photographic Projects in Santa Fe, NM. He has published numerous books, including Contemplative Gardens (1990), Distant Thunder: A Photographic Essay on the American Civil War (1988), and C.M. Russell’s West (1987). Seeing Gardens, published in the fall of 2000, is a memoir in words and pictures of 30 years of his garden photography.

Sam recently completed a story on life within the Japanese Imperial Palace for National Geographic, where he is a staff photographer. He is collaborating with Leah Bendavid-Val on a retrospective of his life and work titled The Photographic Life.

Program 706

Documentary photographer Sam Abell, who has traveled the world shooting for National Geographic and other publications; the Janice Mason Art Museum, “the most creative destination in Cadiz”; and music by Australians Matt and Pauly Zarb, who now live in Bardstown. (#706)