About Bruce Usher

Photography is much more than simply mastery of the medium. Beyond the technicalities, it’s about the ability to communicate powerfully in pictures – using the elements of visual creativity to elicit a response in the viewer.

It’s this ability which separates photographers from people who use cameras, and it’s this ability which has characterised Bruce Usher’s work over four decades. His earliest published photographs were of a subject that enthused him – surfing – but as he developed as a photographer he injected enthusiasm into everything he shot. This capacity to see his surroundings in such a positive manner makes every Bruce Usher photograph more than just a picture… it’s an experience..

Whether dealing with elaborate sets involving many people and complex lighting arrangements, or the simplicity of single object spotted while passing-by, Bruce Usher always injects something extra into his photographs. It’s often an indefinable ‘something’, but it always succeeds in adding a vital extra ingredient which is very often simply a heartfelt celebration of the world around him... channelled through his camera. Consequently, you can’t help celebrating with him, through the sheer enjoyment of life that is so evident in his pictures. In a world obsessed with the ‘big picture’, Bruce Usher relishes the small details; observing and recording – with clear enjoyment – what so many others would miss or ignore.

With a long career in the pressure cooker world of corporate photography, Bruce is more than comfortable with the ‘big picture’ – having created many of his own over the years – but he is also a dedicated observer of everything that’s going on around him, with an innate ability to extract the extraordinary from the ordinary.

The consummate technician, Bruce Usher is something of a rarity as he mixes these photographic skills with passion, emotion and infectious spontaneity. It’s a powerful combination that results in powerful pictures

Paul Burrows Editor, ProPhoto