[ ARTIST'S BIO ]
Self-portrait, Guanajuato 2006. |
A creature of fortunate circumstance, I was raised in the beautiful coastal town of Del Mar, California and began making pictures in a home
darkroom at age 13 and writing articles at 16. In high school I pursued journalism and music and was the
photography editor for the school yearbook. At the University of California at San Diego, I studied music, anthropology, and history, and wrote
and photographed for the campus newspaper and other local publications. I paid my tuition working as a guitarist in various San Diego bands, and
photographing weddings.
After graduating with a B.A. in History, I pursued a career
in photo/journalism with extended trips to Eastern Europe, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Japan and China. One project was
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My book, The China Venture, led to nine
other published titles, including When Business East Meets Business West (Wiley), The New Vietnam (Simon
Schuster), International Excellence (Kodansha), and The Other Europe (Prentice Hall).
I conducted seminars based on these books for Fortune 1000 companies.
After writing the first reference guidebook to online business resources in 1997, and seeing the commercial potential of the internet, I formed a software development company called The Engholm Group. The company continues today creating browser-based software mainly for healthcare companies. With the twiight of the dot.com boom, I began working in real estate development, ultimately serving as a Director of Land Acquisition for America's largest home builder. As the homebuilding industry ebbed (Is there a pattern here...?), I took up travel writing and photography in earnest with projects in Paris and Rome (2004), Kyoto (2005), Yucatan/Chiapas (2006-9), Guatemala (2007-9), and Peru/Panama/New Zealand (2009-10). With my family, I lived in Panajachel, Guatemala in 2011 to complete the research and photography for two books concerning Mayan traditions and culture. |
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At present, I am finishing a book called The Road of Awe: An Explorer's Guide to Sacred Sites and Ritual Along
the Ruta Maya, to be available later this year. This project and my recent travels led me to create a destination learning company in 2009 called RoadOfAwe.com,
offering creative workshops in indigenous communities. The RoadOfAwe.com 2012 brochure is viewable here:
I can be reached directly at:
chris@chrisengholm.com or through the 124 Studio/Thomas Merritt Gallery, which represents my image work. My literary agent is the Julie Castiglia Literary Agency. Both are searchable online. |
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