The History of Cornforth Images
Welcome to Cornforth Images, showcasing the work of acclaimed photographer Jon Cornforth. Here, you can license stock photography and purchase fine art prints. In business since 2002, we offer 3000+ of the finest images from Jon’s travels around the globe.
The Artist
Photographer Jon Cornforth grew up in a small town in southern Michigan, where he spent summers sailing the Great Lakes. His first visit “Out West” involved a family road trip to the Banff National Park, Montana, and Wyoming. Not long after, his family sailed the Virgin Islands. These experiences opened his mind to the beauty of nature, and ignited a passion for travel that would last a lifetime.
Path to Photography
After high school, Jon moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona. Though he studied Mechanical Engineering, his passion was always for the outdoors. He learned to backpack and rock climb, and spent stormy nights camped near the summits of Mt Wrightson and Chiricahua Peak. His fondest memory is of rock-climbing with friends at Windy Point.
His ambitions took him next to the Pacific Northwest. There, he bounced between working as a rock-climbing instructor and technology jobs while he learned to snowboard and ice climb. These skills, along with his early years of sailing, gave him the confidence to explore the remotest parts of the world.
On the last day of 1999, he met the woman who became his wife. She invited him on an extended backpacking trip to Hawaii and Southeast Asia. Before the trip, he saved up enough money to purchase his first 35mm SLR camera. During their multi-month journey, he fell in love with both her and photography.
Realizing A Dream
Back in Seattle, Jon studied photography with The Mountaineers, Kevin Schafer, and Art Wolfe. This was in the dark ages—before the internet and social media! So Jon learned his craft from great nature-photography books by Galen Rowell, Tom Till, Jack Dykinga, and David Muench. Still young and naive enough not to know what he was getting himself into, Jon decided to become a full-time photographer.
Since 2001, Jon has traveled year-round to explore exotic locations and to photograph the unique creatures who live there. All of his images are captured in the wild. In 2016, Jon moved his family from Seattle in the Pacific Northwest to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. He lives on the beautiful north shore with his wife, Daisy, and daughters, Maddy and Chloe.
He hopes you will enjoy his adventures as much as he does.
