Shine

Peter Lik is an Australian photographer born in Melbourne in 1959 to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia after World War II. He received his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera, as an eighth birthday gift from his parents. His first photograph was of a spider web in the family garden. Lik is self-taught, learning photography through trial and error while taking pictures during family vacations and road trips into the Australian wilderness.

In 1984, Lik made his first trip to the United States, traveling for a year in an old van. While in Alaska, he was introduced to panoramic cameras and large format photography. Upon returning to Australia, he continued experimenting with the panoramic format. In 1989, he returned to the United States to undertake a project photographing landscapes in all 50 states. Photos from this project were later collected in his 2003 coffee table book, Spirit of America. Lik spent the early 1990s working for the tourism department of Queensland, Australia, photographing remote areas of the Outback before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1994.

Lik typically shoots panoramas with a Linhof 617 Technorama camera using Fuji film. He also uses digital cameras, primarily Phase One and Nikon models. He prints most of his photographs on FujiFlex silver-halide paper to increase light sensitivity and enhance vibrant colors. His work is known for panoramic format images and large-scale, high-quality prints. "My ultimate goal is to share the magical moment I witnessed through the lens with the world—smell the forest, feel the sand beneath your feet, hear the ocean, taste the salt from the misty air," Lik explains.

Several of Lik's photographs have achieved recognition in major institutions. His photograph "Ghost," taken in Antelope Canyon, Arizona, won the Art in Nature category of the 2010 Windland Smith Rice International Awards and was displayed at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in 2011. His "Inner Peace" won a 2011 Windland Smith Rice International Award and was displayed at the Smithsonian from April through September 2012.

Lik hosted "From the Edge with Peter Lik," which aired for one season on The Weather Channel starting in March 2011. The documentary series followed him across the United States photographing landscapes including volcanoes in Hawaii, mountains in Montana, Arizona's Grand Canyon, and Denali National Park in Alaska. Since the mid-1990s, he has self-published coffee table books, postcards, and calendars featuring his work.