Bob Krist

Bob Krist is a freelance photographer and filmmaker who has worked extensively on assignment for magazines such as National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, and Islands. These assignments have taken him to all seven continents and have won awards in the Pictures of the Year, Communication Arts, and World Press Photo competitions. His short travel films have won gold and silver awards in the prestigious Lowell Thomas competitions as well as at film festivals in Iceland, Italy, and in the US. In addition, he has directed commissioned motion work for Sony USA, TCS World Travel, The Maine Maritime Museum, Visit Bucks County.com, National Geographic Travel blog, the Jalisco Highlands Tourist Board (Mexico), and other clients. During his work, he has been stranded on a glacier in Iceland, nearly run down by charging bulls in southern India, and knighted with a cutlass during a Trinidad voodoo ceremony. He won the title of “Travel Photographer of the Year” from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1994, 2007, and 2008. In 2000 his work was honored at the Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography in New York City. Bob’s books include In Tuscany (Broadway Books, NY), which features 270 pages of his photographs of the region and is a collaboration with author Frances Mayes. It spent a month on the New York Times bestseller list. He also photographed the coffeetable books Caribbean and Portrait of the Caribbean and Low Country: Charleston to Savannah (Graphic Arts Center Publishing), A Photo Tour of New York (Photo Secrets Publishing, San Diego), and Impressions of Bucks County (Old Mill Productions, New Hope PA). His latest book, published in 2020, Old Souls & Timeless Places (Brilliant Press, Exton, PA) is a retrospective of Krist’s portraiture and landscape work, reproduced in rich quad tone black and white. An accomplished writer as well as a photographer, Bob was a contributing editor at both National Geographic Traveler and Outdoor Photographer, where he wrote travel photography columns. His how-to book Spirit of Place: The Art of The Traveling Photographer (Amphoto Books, NY) was hailed by American Photographer magazine as “the best book about travel photography we’ve ever read.” His most recent how-to book Travel Photography: Documenting the World’s People and Places was published in the Digital Masters series by Lark Books. He lectures on behalf of the “Live at the National Geographic” series and recently launched a comprehensive course, The Fundamentals of Travel Photography, for National Geographic in collaboration with The Great Courses. He is a member of Sony’s Artisans of Imagery program. A former professional actor, Bob hosted Nature’s Best Photography, a 13-part series for National Wildlife Productions on the Outdoor Life Network, and Photography Close Up, one of Cablevision’s “MagRack” series. Currently, he can be seen as the host of the PBS special Restoration Stories. Bob lives in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with his wife Peggy. They are the parents of three sons, Matthew, Brian, and Jonathan.