Ralph W. Lambrecht

Ralph Lambrecht was born and educated in Germany. His interest in photography started when he was about seven years old and saw a B&W image emerging in the developer of his father's darkroom. His first camera was a Box Brownie handed down from his grandmother, followed by a post-war 6x6 rangefinder from his father.

As a young adult, Ralph emigrated with his wife and two children to the United States, where he worked and received a Masters Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan. While living in the US his interest in photography grew slowly into a passion, when he met accomplished photographers such as Howard Bond and Phil Davis, who taught him the basics of fine printing and the Zone System. Further photographic education followed, including a workshop with John Sexton in California, which ended with an unforgettable visit to Ansel Adams' darkroom.

His choice of equipment has become more sophisticated since the days of the Brownie, but he still uses mechanical cameras in medium and large format for all his fine-art photography. Traditional silver-gelatin film and fiber-base paper are his media of choice, and he enjoys performing all darkroom tasks himself. To him, an attractive presentation of the image is just as important as the photography itself. Consequently, he performs all mounting, matting and framing to archival gallery and museum standards. Since 1999, he is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Graduate Image Scientist since 2007. His work has been exhibited internationally from private galleries to the London Salon of Photography.

Ralph has been involved in adult education for over 20 years. As a photographic author, he has written for major photographic magazines, including Camera & Darkroom, Black & White Photography, Photo Techniques, Fine Art Printer and View Camera magazine. He is a regular on FotoTV and has contributed to several book projects, including Schwarzweiß Fotografie Digital and the fourth edition of The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography.