David Korte

David M. Korte, born and raised in Midwest United States. Korte’s early interests focus on street photography in Minneapolis, Europe, and other American cities. Eight years in Africa included six years in a remote village in Gabon, among monkeys, elephants and gorillas, where rainforest meets the Atlantic Ocean. Two additional years in Monrovia, capitol of Liberia, reintroduced an interest in street photography.
Today, Korte searches for inspiration among cypresses, swamps, and pine forests, dodging snakes and alligators, appreciating those variations in light, weather and topography that define Florida’s Paradise Coast.

Inspired by the work of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson’s, decisive moment, Robert Frank’s spontaneous street images and Irving Penn’s portrait and still life works; with additional inspiration by way of joyful, brilliantly-colored market scenes of obscure West African artists, the stylized tropical themes of Henri Rousseau, and the symbolist-inspired, color-drenched depictions of tropical paradise by Paul Gauguin. The list is endless.

Korte finds the medium of photography ideal for working in the wild lands of tropical Africa and America. Precautions against heat, humidity and rain apply to all artistic mediu...

Formal education includes a B.A. in fine art at Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota with minors in psychology and photojournalism.
Additional education includes workshops with photographers Garry Winogrand, Lucien Clergue, Tom Arndt, Bruce Barnbaum and Don Kirby.

recent exhibitions, publications:
portraits, A.Smith Gallery, Johnson City Texas, 2023.
contemporary portrait exhibition, SE Center for Photography, South Carolina, 2021.
botanical, A.Smith Gallery, Johnson City, Texas, 2021.
vistas, A.Smith Gallery, Johnson City, Texas, 2020.
Florida Photography Annual, United Arts Council and Rookery Bay, Naples, Florida, 2020.
she, A.Smith Gallery, Johnson City,Texas, 2019.
Game Day U.S.A., Minneapolis Photo Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2018.
2019 self-publish “Liberia Portfolio” hardcover, 71 pages.
2016 self-publish “Gabon Portfolio” hardcover, 145 pages.

collections: U.S. Embassy, Monrovia, Liberia.
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
ANPN - Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux du Gabon.
The Nature Conservancy, Gabon.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Florida.