Ric Ergenbright

Biography

Born and raised in Southern California, Ric Ergenbright grew up in the shadow of his father's photographic travel company, Thru The Lens Tours -- a business that he eventually took over upon returning home from 3 years at the U.S. Army Pictorial Center in Germany.

Operating America's largest photographic travel program for the next fourteen years, Ric gained a deep and practical knowledge of the world, and built an extensive library of high-quality images that enabled his later success in stock photography. Selling Thru The Lens Tours in 1983, Ric and his wife, Jill, moved to Central Oregon in search of a better location to raise their three daughters, and to photograph the American West. There they built a competitive stock photo business based on Ric's existing international coverage, while he steadily added new material from travel assignments and large-format landscape shoots across America.

One national and two regional TV shows have been produced about Ric's work, and an exhibit of his images from pre-war Afghanistan toured the U.S. Senate in 1986. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Nature's Best Photography Award, Pictures of the Year Award, and Lowell Thomas Award, and is one of the few contemporary photographers represented in the book and exhibit, Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic. His best-selling book, The Art of God: The Heavens & The Earth, won the ECPA Gold Medallion Award for the best Christian gift book of 2000, and is now in its sixth printing. Its sequel, The Image of God: The Glory of Man, was the 2005 runner-up, and his 2003 title, Think About These Things, also won the Gold. Ric is currently working on a major new title, Creation's Hope, for 2010 release.