QT Luong

Photo of QT Luong in Kings Canyon National Park by Buddy Squires

(50 words) QT Luong was the first to photograph all America's 63 National Parks - in large format. His work, extensively published, is the subject of five books including Treasured Lands (winner of twelve awards), many newspaper and magazine feature articles, solo gallery and museum exhibits across the U.S. and abroad. (100 words) QT Luong was the first to photograph all America's 63 National Parks - in large format. He received the Ansel Adams Award for Photography from the Sierra Club, the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks from the National Parks Conservation Association, and was featured in the film The National Parks: America's Best Idea. His photographs are extensively published and have been the subject of five books including Treasured Lands (winner of twelve national and international book awards), many newspaper and magazine feature articles, solo gallery and museum exhibits across the U.S. and abroad. (150 words) QT Luong, photographer, author, and environmentalist, was the first to photograph all 63 U.S. National Parks - in large format. He has received the Ansel Adams Award for Photography from the Sierra Club, the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks from the National Parks Conservation Association, and was featured in the film The National Parks: Americaʼs Best Idea.   His work has been profiled and critically acclaimed in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, National Geographic Explorer among many other newspapers, magazines, and other media. His photographs are the subject of five books, including the best-selling Treasured Lands, winner of twelve national and international awards, and have appeared in hundreds of publications worldwide. Luong's limited-edition prints, widely collected, have been exhibited solo in museums and galleries nationwide and abroad. He lives in San Jose, California, with his wife and two children. To see his work, visit terragalleria.com. (400 words) QT Luong celebrates our world with his photography. He has been privileged to travel through an immense geographic range, from the top of the coldest mountain on earth to under tropical seas. He was the first to photograph all 63 U.S. national parks - in large format, and his best-selling book Treasured Lands received critical acclaim and twelve book awards. Born to Vietnamese parents in Paris, France, Luong was trained as a scientist (X84, PhD U. Paris). The revelation of the high Alps led him to also become a mountain climber and wilderness guide. When he came to the US to conduct research in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing for what was to be a short stay, he chose UC Berkeley, because of the proximity to Yosemite--a world class rock climbing destination. There, he fell in love with the national parks and decided to photograph all of them with a 5x7 large format camera , a single-handed, self-financed, monumental project that had not been completed before. He settled in the San Francisco Bay Area and started crisscrossing this country to capture its diverse beauty. Luong's in-depth explorations often dictated long hikes into the backcountry, with a 75 lb backpack, and only his passion and dedication to keep him company. By 2002, he had visited each of the then 58 national parks. He subsequently left his distinguished career as a scientist to work as a full-time photographer. In 2009, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan featured him as the only living artist in their film The National Parks: America's Best Idea. He received the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks from the National Parks Conservation Association in 2021 and the Ansel Adams Award for Photography from the Sierra Club in 2022. Luong's photographs have been the subject of five large-format books. They have appeared in publications from National Geographic, Time, Life, Outside, Scientific American, GEO, and hundreds others worldwide. His work, profiled or reviewed in magazines (Outdoor Photographer, National Geographic Explorer, ...) and newspapers (New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle...), has been exhibited solo in galleries and museums nationwide and abroad. He lives in San Jose, California, with his wife and two children. His work can be seen at terragalleria.com, one of the most visited of individual photographers websites.