Taylor Lockwood's illuminating photographs of fungi can be seen in his books, calendars, place mats, posters, on DVDs, on a postage stamp in The Netherlands and a U.S. postage stamp. Come Friday, the man himself can be seen in Little Rock.
Taylor will speak and show highlights from his 34-year career as a mushroom photographer at 7 p.m. Friday in Unitarian Universalist Church of Little Rock at 1818 Reservoir Road.
Sponsored by the Arkansas Mycological Society, the presentation is open to the public and free.
Lockwood, of Mount Dora, Fla., travels the world taking photographs of fungi. Since his most recent speaking tour in 2014, he has visited New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Costa Rica, Malaysia and, this year, Borneo. His talk will include new photographs and video shot since 2014, as well as new animations of bioluminescent -- glowing -- fungi and other unusual mushrooms.
He has photographed his travels and fungi on every continent except Antarctica.
According to his website, Taylor did not set out to study fungi as a boy. He grew up near Seattle and after high school attended the University of Washington's College of Architecture, but left at 21 to start a band in the San Francisco Bay Area. A few years later he moved to Los Angeles. Three bands and seven years of heat and smog later, he moved to Mendocino, Calif., in December 1984 -- the rainy season.
Rain means mushrooms. "In his first week there, he 'discovered' mushrooms, bought a camera, and started taking photos," according to his bio.
Thirty-four years later, his photos have been published by National Geographic, National Wildlife Federation Magazine, Scholastic, Scientific American, The New York Times, Washington Post, Mother Earth News, among others.
He is the author of two self-published books, Treasures From the Kingdom of Fungi (2001) and Chasing the Rain: My Treasure Hunt for the World's Most Beautiful Mushrooms (2007), as well as several video programs including educational DVDs: The Mushroom Identification Trilogy and The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly.
The U.S. Postal Service included his photo of the Brazilian fungi Mycena lucentipes in a set of 10 "Bioluminescent Life" Forever Stamps, released in February.
His website is taylorlockwood.com. For more information about the show, email timjones.ark@gmail.com.
ActiveStyle on 11/26/2018