Chris Calkins

Chris brought his photographer's eye to his kaleidoscopic life experience, including the thirty jobs he had by the time he was thirty. He has worked as a stunt cowboy in Old Tucson, Arizona, taught yoga at an ashram, been a construction worker, a car salesman, was named one of Esquire Magazine's Best Dressed College Men, and worked as a professional model with the Wilhelmina agency. He managed a rock band, and a jazz club, joined AFTRA and drove a New York City cab; was a professional photographer's assistant, a restauranteur, and started the restaurant division of Starbucks; he co-founded Spinelli Coffee in San Francisco, created his own coffee roasting company in Red Hook, and made wine in the Napa Valley. His camera was the on constant, weaving together captured visual moments and surprise from the panorama of his experience. "A photo," Calkins believes, "should capture the emotion you feel when you take it."

Born in Eugene, Oregon, Chris grew up in Norwalk, CT just outside New York City. Camera in hand, he spent his free time growing up exploring Chinatown and the streets of Manhattan. He was present at Woodstock, and the Beatles' first appearance at Carnegie Hall. He has created a life where the vantage point of his lens is always surrounded by unending visual riches.

His work has been exhibited on both coasts, and is held in numerous private collections. Chris lives and works in Manhattan.