Richard Olsenius Biography

The photographic career of Richard Olsenius spans 50 years of seeing the world in a special way.  From newspaper stories that covered the tumult of the 1960’s, to National Geographic adventures in the Arctic, to exploring the forgotten landscapes of the American heartland, Olsenius has captured memorable imagery through still photos and video. Eventually he added music composition to more fully complement his photographic work in CD-ROM, mixed-media and online digital-video technology.

His stories have taken him across the nation, to the Arctic and South America and to Europe and Asia, where he won the World Press Photo Award for his story on Cambodian Refugees. He has produced two award-winning films, ten books and six DVD’s.

After 11 years as a staff photographer for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper, Olsenius spent the next 10 years as a freelance photographer with National Geographic Magazine. He joined the staff as an Illustrations Editor (picture editor) and became the Magazine's producer for the launch of it's website.  In 1999 he resigned from the magazine and was assigned to join with Garrison Keillor, of Prairie Home Companion fame, to photograph the real Lake Wobegon.  Here, Olsenius returned to his roots in central Minnesota with his 4 X 5 camera to put a real face on Keillor’s mythology.  The two produced a story for the National Geographic Magazine and a book published by  Viking Studio Press - “In Search of Lake Wobegon.”

Olsenius continues his video and photographic work and has served as an Art Director for the Korea 50th Memorial,  World War II Memorial and Spirit of America shows produced by the U.S. Government and seen by over 300,000 people. He has recently worked with the U.S. State Department in producing four permanent overseas embassy collections of his work. in 2011 the U.S. Postal Service released an international airmail stamp of one of his photographs and a post card series featuring one of Olsenius’ photographs. Olsenius recently completed editing and scoring music for the Chesapeake film, Beautiful Swimmers Revisited and finished working on a web-based 4k video project with his wife Christine, called The Way West.

Richard and Christine also completed a long-sought project “Ice Bound” on Geoff Pope and his 50’ top-sailed ketch, the Sheila Yeates. This chronicles the years with Geoff Pope up to and including the sinking and miraculous rescue of his crew in the North Atlantic.

Richard and Christine live under the shadow of the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson, Arizona. where they continue to develop books, music and films that celebrate a sense of place.

In 1922, Olsenius release two new albums of music on Apple Music, “The Way West, and Chesapeake Visions.”