Keith Lazelle is enchanted with oriental aesthetics, with haiku, with Zen. It was a book of photographic translations of Basho’s haiku, from the 18th century, that led him into photography.
Lazelle was born and raised in Washington State and today, he and his wife, Jane Hall—who acts as his agent—live in a beautiful Douglas Fir forest on 20 acres overlooking Dabob Bay near Quilcene, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. Keith and Jane met right out of college where they were both working for the Forest Service near Forks, WA. Their first date was a backpacking trip in the Olympic Mountains, so perhaps it was inevitable that after their wedding they set a course for their lives around a career that would keep them close to nature.
For 25 years, Keith has been working with a wide variety of clients, including:
Audubon, Alaska Airlines Magazine, Cascade Land Conservancy, Coldwater Creek, Delta Sky Magazine, Eddie Bauer, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Key Bank, NBBJ Architects, Microsoft, Mt. Hood Medical Center, Outside Magazine, Rand-McNally, Safeco Insurance, Seattle City Light, Seattle Opera, Seattle Space Needle, Swedish Hospital, The Nature Conservancy, University of Puget Sound and Woodland Park Zoo.
Keith was recently commissioned by Hoh River Trust to photograph 60 miles of the beautiful Hoh River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in four seasons, from it’s headwaters on Mt. Olympus, to the ocean. This resulted in the publication of a book, “Fast Moving Water,” along with an exhibit that is traveling around Washington State through 2010, sponsored by the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History.
In 1999, The Nature Conservancy of Washington and The Burke Museum sponsored a large exhibit of Keith’s work titled: “Washington’s Web of Life”, which also toured the State.
Lazelle does all of his own printing using state-of-the art digital tools to produce archival Giclee Prints. These fine art prints are valued by individuals and corporations collecting art. The artist’s work is included in numerous corporations including: Bank of America, Great Northwest Savings, Group Health, Harrison Memorial Hospital, Frank Russell Investment Company, Mt. Hood Medical Center, Merrill Lynch, Providence Hospital, Olympic Medical Center, Puget Sound Bank, Prudential-Bache, Sacred Heart Medical Center, Seafirst Bank, Saint Anthony’s Hospital, Saint Peters Hospital, Standard Insurance, Swedish Hospital, Tacoma General, US Bank and Washington State Ferries.
