John Fielder is a nationally renowned photographer, publisher, teacher, and preservationist. He hikes and skis hundreds of miles in Colorado alone each year - and drives thousands - in order to record on film its most sublime natural places. For the last 40 years, no one has traveled this state like John Fielder, from its rolling plains to the soaring Rocky Mountains and the Western Slope's remote plateaus and river canyons.
He first visited Colorado at the age of 14 during a school field trip from North Carolina: "In all my life, I have not forgotten my first sight of the Rockies rising up before me over the plains. I was simply smitten by this wall of snow-capped peaks above a treeless plain. And the word C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O, it was the most poetic name for a place I had ever heard. I realized at that moment that someone or something had guided me to this place, and that I belonged here for the rest of my life."
Though he started his family and planted his Colorado roots as a department store executive, he ultimately turned his avocation into a career. He is the photographer of more than 39 exhibit format and guidebooks, all but four about Colorado. He might be best known for creating Colorado's best-selling book ever, Colorado: 1870 - 2000, which juxtaposes historic photographer William Henry Jackson's images of the 19th-century landscape with those of today.
John Fielder has worked tirelessly to promote the protection of Colorado's open space and wildlands. His photography has influenced people and legislation earning him recognition including the Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award in 1993, and in 2011 the Aldo Leopold Foundation’s first Achievement Award given to an individual. He was an original governor-appointed member of the lottery-related Board of Great Outdoors Colorado, and speaks to thousands of people each year to rally support for timely land use and environmental issues. His latest Colorado project involves photographing parks, open space, wildlife habitat, ranches, and more…the work of Great Outdoors Colorado…for its 20th anniversary in 2012.