George Steinmetz

George Steinmetz (born 1957) is an American photographer. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Geophysics in 1979. He began his career in photography after hitchhiking through Africa for 28 months in his twenties. His current work focuses on photographing the world's deserts while piloting a motorized paraglider. This experimental aircraft enables him to capture images of the world inaccessible by traditional aircraft and most other modes of transportation.
His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Smithsonian, TIME, The New York Times Magazine, and he is a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine.
He is the author of four books, African Air, Empty Quarter, Desert Air, and "New York Air" which feature portfolios of his work in many regions of the world. African Air is a compilation of pictures from ten years of flying over Africa, mostly with a motorized paraglider. Empty Quarter contains images of the Arabian landscape, its people, and its wildlife. Desert Air is a photographic collection of the world’s “extreme deserts,” which receive less than four inches of precipitation per year. Included are photographs of the Gobi Desert, the Sahara, and Death Valley. "New York Air" is an aerial portrait of New York City with all it’s boroughs in all four seasons.
He has won awards for photography during his 25-year career, including two first prizes in science and technology from World Press Photo. He has also won awards and citations from Pictures of the Year, Overseas Press Club and Life magazine's Alfred Eisenstadt Awards. In 2006 he was awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation to document the work of scientists in the Dry Valleys and volcanoes of Antarctica. The LOOK3 Festival hosted Steinmetz as a keynote speaker in 2011 for his presentation titled "Wild Air".
There is a selection of his work exclusively represented by Anastasia Photo in NYC. His work has also been exhibited in Dubai, the Brookfield Winter Garden in New York., The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, The Konica-Minolta Plaza in Tokyoas well as public venues Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, Toronto, Stuttgart, Expo 2015 in Milano, the Triennale di Milano, and twice in the Festival Photo La Gacilly in France.
There are several videos online that feature Steinmetz and his work. He was interviewed by the Explorers Club and presented his work at the LOOK3 Festival in Charlottesville, the New England Aquarium, and Harvard University. He has videos to preview his books African Air, Empty Quarter, and Desert Air.