Bobby Harrison is an award winning nature photographer, speaker, writer, and educator based in Huntsville, Alabama. Mr. Harrison holds a B.F.A. in Photography from Andrew's University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and a M.S. in Media Technology from Alabama A&M University. He is currently the Director of the Art Program at Oakwood College where he holds the rank of Associate Professor.
He is also the founder and president of the newly established Ivory-billed Woodpecker Foundation Inc., a 501 (c) 3 non profit organization dedicated to: The location, recovery, protection, management, preservation and conservation of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and other rare, endangered and threatened species' populations and their habitats, through scientific research and documentation, and the education of the general public.
Mr. Harrison is a charter member of the North American Nature Photography Association, and served on the Board of Directors from January 2001 to February 2004. In February 2004 he made national and international headlines when he became one of the two people that rediscovered the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Eastern Arkansas, a species though extinct for 60 years.
Mr. Harrison has published articles and photographs in various national and international magazines and calendars such as: Audubon, Living bird, Birder's World, Wildbird, Nature's Best, Bird Watchers Digest, Natural History, National and International Wildlife, American Photo, Birds and Blooms, Sinra, Outdoor Photographer, Outdoor and Travel Photographer, as well as other publications.Calendars include Birder's World, Audubon, and Sanibel Island.
His travels have taken him from the Pribilof Islands and the Alaska mainland to Venezuela, from the Arizona deserts to coastal Maine, in order to photograph his favorite subject: birds. He has traveled widely throughout North America giving slide presentations on birds and bird photography.
He is the winner of the 2001 Nature's Best / Cemex International Photography Awards in the Backyard Habitat, professional category. The winning image was on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for six months. The 2001 Nature's Best / Cemex award is Mr. Harrison's third time as a winner in this prestigious competition. In 2000 he was a Highly Honored winner in the Wildlife, professional category.
In 1997 he was the winner in the Animal Antics professional category. Mr. Harrison was also a published finalist in the 2003, American Photo magazine contest. He has also won over two-dozen Photography awards at the Southern Wildlife Festival held in Decatur, Alabama. In 2006 one of Mr. Harrison's image was selected by Nature's Best magazine as one of the top one hundred nature images of the last decade.
Mr. Harrison is one of the featured photographers in a thirteen part television series entitled "Nature's Best Photography". The program was produced by the National Wildlife Federation and Nikon Inc. and aired on the Outdoor cable network in the fall of 1998.
In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of The Explores Club in New York City. On March 18, 2006 Bobby, along with Tim Gallagher received The Explores Clubs Presidents Award for Conservation at their annual gala. This prestigious award is given for a significant contribution to science through exploration. In December 2006 Mr. Harrison was the recipient of the Judah P. Benjamin Conservation Award, presented by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
He is best known for his life long quest to find the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird thought by most ornithologists to be extinct. On February 27, 2004 he and colleague Tim Gallagher rediscovered the long thought extinct bird in eastern Arkansas. Their sighting, the first time since 1944 that two qualified observers had positively identified an ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States-quickly led to the largest search ever launched to find a rare bird and ultimately to the announcement in April, 2005 of the rediscovery of the species.
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