About Us

I started making photographs when I was 10 years old using my father's twin lens reflex. At first unknown to my mother, and later unappreciated, I set up a card table in the back of my clothes closet to make contact prints. I prefer the esthetics of black and white film, especially for portraits and studio photography, but because of the convenience of digital and the power of Photoshop, I use digital for most of my travel and daily photography. My film cameras include a Haselblad 501cm (the square format is classic) and a Contax 645. My digital cameras inlcude a Canon EOS 20D and a Nikon D3 with Nikkor AF-S 24 - 70 mm zoom and 105 mm micro. I print to an Epson Pro 3800 printer. My favorite subjects are people.

I take pictures mainly for fun, but occasionally I will take on paid assignments. You can see some of my "commercial" work at the Chemical Biology Discovery Center and the Emory Neuroscience Program websites.

When not taking photos, I can be found working in my research lab at the Emory University School of Medicine. I received my PhD from Johns Hopkins University working on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. From there, did postdoctoral work with Steve Kuffler, a father of modern neurobiology, at Harvard Medical School. Currently, I am Professor of Cell Biology at Emory University Scool of Medicine. You can find more about my research here.

I live in Decatur, GA, and can be reached by email at criss.hartzell@gmail.com.