Roger Ressmeyer
Roger Ressmeyer’s brilliant career as a photojournalist has its roots in his childhood fascination with space exploration. In 1962, when Roger was eight years old, John Glenn became America’s first man in orbit and captured young Ressmeyer’s imagination. By the age of eleven, Roger was building elaborate model rockets, polishing optics for telescopes he built by hand, and photographing the stars from his backyard at night. In the years since that time, Roger’s diverse subjects have included musicians, authors, earthquakes, and volcanoes. However, his chronicling of the heavens and human endeavors in space remains the work for which he is best known and to which he brings unparalleled originality and beauty.
Roger’s professional career as a photographer began in San Francisco in 1975, shortly after his graduation from Yale University. For the first ten years of his career, Ressmeyer focused upon stars of another sort – celebrities. During that time, he photographed hundreds of rock stars, musicians, writers, poets, politicians, scientists, philosophers and business leaders. His work appeared on record albums and book jackets, and in national publications, such as People Weekly and Rolling Stone.
But despite his early success as a celebrity and portrait photographer, Roger was drawn back to his childhood love of space and science. In the early 1980’s he began to turn his cameras once again to the night sky and things scientific. During this time, Roger’s frequent clients included Life, Time, Newsweek, Discover, Smithsonian, The New York Times Magazine, Stern and Geo. Later, from 1987 through 1995, Roger worked nearly full time on picture stories for National Geographic Magazine. From such assignments, Ressmeyer produced a breathtaking body of award-winning work.
In 1995, intrigued and lured by the opportunity to participate in the convergence of photography and computer technology, Ressmeyer sold his photography collection and stock photo business to Bill Gates’ Corbis Corporation. For the next three years, Ressmeyer worked at Corbis developing content acquisition and distribution strategy, as well as quality standards for digital imagery.
Since 1999, Ressmeyer has been a Vice President of Getty Images where his primary responsibilities include corporate strategy, business development, and photographer relations. In his free time, Ressmeyer is a member of Canon’s celebrated Explorers of Light program. He lectures frequently at industry events, and produces innovative still and motion imagery. Roger’s cameras, however, have found a new and compelling star to capture – his photogenic toddler, Ryan.





