Michael Hanson, Seattle

Michael Hanson is a Seattle-based photographer.

In the midst of a summer sleeping on buses or in chain hotels throughout the Appalachians while playing baseball in the Atlanta Braves minor league organization, Michael started to make pictures. The unique environment, personalities, and lifestyle of minor league dovetailed with Michael’s sensibility for documentary photography. Over the two years he played with the Braves, Michael shot a series that sparked his post-baseball photography career.

After less than a year assisting a fine-art photographer, Michael went solo on his freelance career. His travel/lifestyle work has taken him on assignments to Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, British Columbia, and throughout the US. Michael has undertaken documentary projects investigating the changing lives of indigenous cultures in Ecuador (oil extraction), Guatemala (native artisans), Chile (mining), Fiji (marine exploitation), Rwanda (post-genocide photographers), and Ethiopia (coffee farming). He recently taught a National Geographic Student Expedition Photography course in the Sacred Valley, Peru. His work has been recognized by PDN, The Banff Center, among others. Although his work has evolved from the first project on baseball, the passion for capturing people and their immediate landscapes in a clean, natural, documentary style remains at the core of Michael Hanson Photography. Based in Seattle, WA.

Images copyright: Michael Hanson

Be sure to check out (and subscribe to) Michael’s Blog