Nathan Wirth, a native San Franciscan, is a self taught photographer who uses a variety of techniques— including long exposure, infrared and intentional camera movement— to express his unending wonder of the fundamental fact of existence. Wirth, who earned both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English Literature from San Francisco State University, brings a deep appreciation of poetry to his explorations of place (especially the sea). Poets such as George Oppen, Seamus Heaney, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, James Schuyler, Lorine Niedecker, and George Mackay Brown have played a fundamental role in shaping his attention to the things and places that he photographs. Often returning to the same locations many times, Wirth seeks to explore the silence and the sublimity of those places.

In addition to poetry, Wirth is profoundly influenced by the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, and Camille Pissarro and the photography of Michael Kenna, David Burdeny, Edward Weston, and Wright Morris– as well as the wonderful photography of his friends Joel Tjintjelaar, Steve Landeros, Jeff Gaydash, Iain Gilmour, Brian Day, Teresa Stover and Athena Carey.

Wirth makes his living teaching English Composition at City College of San Francisco.