Reed Stuart Rahn
In 1986, I started Rahn & Associates Photographic and became one of the best editorial photographers in the Southwest United States. I worked for hundreds of national and international magazines, photographing covers for publications like Time and shooting hundreds of stories for others, such as National Geographic. For corporate and advertising photography, I was represented by Getty Images Corporate out of New York, which allowed me to travel and photograph internationally.
In 2002, I became a Yogi after taking my first yoga class. I came to yoga with my life crumbling around me; the 2001 9/11 attacks had just occurred, and my wife had asked for a divorce after 12 years of marriage. At the same time, I faced bankruptcy as the owner of a professional photographic lighting company that I had started and invented. Through a partnership with Chimera Lighting in Boulder, Colorado, I created lighting tools for professional photographers that were sold to the best in the world, including Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz. In reality, my journey with movement started at age 15 when I began my 52-year practice of Tai Chi. I have now been practicing and teaching yoga for 25 years. Over the years, I have owned three yoga studios and started the first hiking yoga company in the United States, Arizona Hiking Yoga. You might say I am an expert on movement.
In 2004, I began creating "Light of Yoga," my first fine art photography series. It featured me practicing yoga in my photographic studio, creating abstract forms with dramatic, beautiful lighting and unique perspectives of the human body. When I released the series, I was shocked by the lack of enthusiasm from major galleries. The response was always, “These are beautiful images and photographic work, but male nudes are really hard to sell!” I was deeply disappointed after spending a year of my life creating these timeless images. Instead of pushing further, I thought, "Forget it! I will just share yoga, and maybe the art will be discovered someday.”
Fast-forward 19 years. After years of being a Yogi—and a "weekend Ansel Adams / Art Wolfe" wannabe—I told myself in 2023 that I should become a professor of photography. So, at the age of 64, I signed up for the online graduate program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. Today, I hold an MFA in Photography and am on my way to becoming an Associate Professor of Photography.
As I continue this journey as a fine art photographer, I believe the sky is the limit for my career, and the value of my work is starting to be recognized. I am here to be remembered as one who “Helped Save Earth With Others!” In the spirit of supporting nonprofit environmental organizations, I am proud to donate 25% of all photographic sales proceeds to help stop global warming.