Charles Harrison

Hi, I'm Charles Harrison.  I am a retired Air Traffic Control Specialist from the Federal Aviation Administration and Computer System Engineer from TRW.  I have been photographing for as long as I can remember.  Since my retirement I have started my business, Natural Image Photography, specializing in the photography of the performing arts.

In the late 1980’s, I took classes in photography from the Smithsonian Institute’s Resident Associates Program in Washington, D.C.  These classes led me to take a course in dance appreciation, which was followed with a class on dance photography.  This hooked me on the photography of the performing arts. Up to this time the majority of my photography was devoted to nature and landscapes.  My photography interests changed overnight from nature to the most beautiful object in all nature and the hardest to photograph correctly, the human form - in particular the human form in motion in dance.  I believe the dedicated dancer is the most well developed and coordinated of all athletes.

In the late 1990s, I graduated from the Northern Virginia Community College with a degree in Studio Photography.  I continue to focus on the performing arts as subjects for my photography.  I currently photograph the Western Illinois Dance Theatre, The Illinois Ballet located in Peoria, IL and the Knox College Dance Ensemble in Galesburg, IL.  Before moving to Illinois, I photographed the Fleet Feet Dance School and Cross Currents Dance Group in Bethesda, MD, the Arlington Dance Theatre, the Kathy Harty-Gray Dance Theatre and the Choreographers Dance Collective in Arlington, VA.