Lyle Owerko
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Lyle Owerko is a filmmaker and photographer whose work has ranged from Sundance Channel to Time to MTV. His photos are collected by many business, entertainment and celebrity clients, they have been used in several films including Henry Singer's The Falling Man and The Omen (2006 film), as well as books such as Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. His work is also included in the permanent archive of the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
Owerko has directed Robert Redford in a series of Sundance Channel commercial spots and shot a music video for the first single on Grammy Award winner Jesse Harris' new album Feel. He's also directed music videos for artists like Rufus Wainwright and American Hi-Fi.
In 2005 Princeton Architectural Press published Jennifer New's book Drawing From Life which featured Owerko's journals as well as those of Mike Figgis, David Byrne, Carol Beckwith and Maira Kalman.
In 2006 Owerko traveled to Africa as part of Dr. Jeffrey Sachs’ "Millennium Promise" initiative, documenting the lives of the Lau people of Sauri, Kenya. Current initiatives range from the multi-media exhibition "Faces of Poverty Project", to an art installation of large-scale portraits of the Samburu Warrior tribe, as well as a book on vintage consumer electronics.
Lyle shot the cover photograph of Time on September 11, 2001. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors ranked it as one of the 40 most important magazine covers in the last 40 years. Further acknowledgment for Owerko’s work has come from the New York and German Art Directors Club, the AIGA, American Photo, Print Magazine, Step into Design, The Type Directors Club, The One Club, New York Festivals, Communication Arts, The Royal Photographic Society, and a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Owerko travels extensively around the world each year shooting assignments and personal work. He was raised in Calgary, Canada, studied at the Pratt Institute where he earned a Masters in Science degree in the communication arts program. He resides in New York City.
A portion of Owerko’s personal work as a photographer can be viewed in the self-published book And No Birds Sang, featuring images from September 11th, 2001.
