Mike Seidl was born and raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in English Literature, intending to teach college-level English. About the same time, Mike's father built a darkroom in his house and Mike thought that, since he had the opportunity, he should learn how to take a decent photograph. But developing and printiing that first roll of film turned out to be a direction-changing experience, and he never went back to graduate school. Ironically, the subject matter of that first roll of film was buildings -- shots of the beautiful old buildings in Pioneer Square.

That was many years ago now. Mike has been photographing the built environment, primarily houses, for more than 25 years professionally. Recently he has partnered with an experienced videographer, Ron Stewart, to produce videos (SeidlStewart.com). The video learning curve has been steep, but very exciting, and the feedback they're receiving has been gratifying.

Mike feels very fortunate to have found a trade about which he cares passionately. The changes in photography since he began are mind boggling but he believes that the creative possibilities are greater now than ever before.

Mike's favorite quotation about photography is by Cartier-Bresson and expresses pretty well his feelings about the art and craft of picture making: " to take photographs is to find the structure of the world - to revel in the pure pleasure of form, to disclose that in all this chaos, there is order".

Mike has lived with his family on Bainbridge for 28 years.