DIEGO SAMPER is an artist who works in different media: photography, painting, artist's books and objects. His work reflects his background in biology and anthropology and his life long interest in natural history and tribal cultures are reflected in all of his work.

In his 30 years of experience in nature and ethnographic photography, he has completed projects commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution Press, National Geographic, Planeta Humano and some other international publishers. His photographs have been printed in more than 30 books (17 of them exclusively of his own work).

Parallel to this documentary photographic body of work, he has explored extensively fine art photography, oil and watercolour painting, drawing, one of a kind books, artifacts, installations and architectonic design. His work has been shown in solo and collective exhibitions in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

As a publisher, with his wife Marlene, he has already designed and produced 12 illustrated books and designed 8 traveling exhibitions.

An environmental sound recordist, with an ample collection of ethnic and natural songs recorded during his travels. Some of his exhibitions have involved sound as a major component, and his latest publication, Voces de la Tierra, is a book and a CD featuring the sounds, images and literature of soundscapes of the forests of Northern South America.

Traveler, a seven-year permanent resident of the Colombian Amazon (1979-1986), Samper's many other travels and photographic expeditions to different regions of South America, Central America and the Caribbean, have given him a strong insight of the tropical rain forests, deserts and mountains, and a good knowledge of some of their indigenous peoples. Other journeys have taken him to North Africa and India

One Person Shows

2007 Morph, instalation. Tieton, Washington, USA.
2007 Imaginarios, Claustro de Santo Domingo, Cartagena, Colombia.
2004 Skin, DeLeon White Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.
2004 MicroCosmos-MacroCosmos, Planetario de Bogotá. Bogota, Colombia.
2003 Log Books and other dreams, Gallery Route One, Point Reyes, California.
2000-2003 Makuna, Museo del Oro, Bogotá, Colombia.
2001 Tierra (Earth), Museum of Modern Art, Bogotá, Colombia.
The Nature of Nature, Ferry Building Gallery, West Vancouver.
1997-1998. La Mirada de la India (A Glimpse of India), Centro Cultural Rómulo Gallegos, Caracas, Venezuela; Colegio de Arquitectos, Quito, Ecuador; Escuela de Bellas Artes, San José de Costa Rica.
1997-2000 Colombia, a Botanical Expedition, PNUMA, Nairobi, Kenia; Natural History Museum, Brusseles, Belgium; Natural History Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. Natural History Museum, London, England.
1995-1999 Colombia Mágica, Santillana Foundation, Bogotá. Eduardo Síbori Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Center for the Indian Culture, New Delhi, India; National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
1993 Photographs, French Embassy, Bogotá.
1989 Of Earth and Fire, Photographs. Diners Gallery, Bogotá.
1989 Oils, Casa Negret Gallery, Bogotá.
1982 Drawings, Kreisshouse Gallery, Koln, Germany.
1980 Photographs, Colseguros Photographic Gallery, Bogotá.

Selected Collective Exhibitions

2006 Earth=home, set design and multimedia, a collaboration with Judith Marcuse projects, The Black Box, Vancouver.
2005 Fotografía en Colombia1950-2000, Museo Nacional de Colombia,Bogotá
1999-2003 At the Heart of the World, Sao Paolo, Brasil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Caracas, Venezuela; UBC
Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, B.C; York University, Toronto; Biodome, Montreal.
2002 Nature, the Mirror. Wiford & Vogt Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
2000-2002 Les Esprits, l’or et le chamane. environmental sound for the Gold Museum exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris, and Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.
1998 Colombia, Patria de tres Mares, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA; Biodome, Montreal.
1997 Amazonia: o olhar sem froteiras, Funarte, Belen de Pará, Brasil.
1992 Cajas eróticas, el secreto de la caja de David, Alonso Arte, Bogotá.
Photo Mechan Art, Colombian Center, New York, USA.
Colombia, Multimedia, Colombia pavillion, ExpoSevilla, Spain.
1991 Power of Site, Landscape Photography. Los Angeles Photography Center, California,USA.
New Expressions in Colombian Art.. Lankershim Arts Center. North Hollywood, California. USA.
1990 XXXIII Annual National Hall of Colombian Artists, Bogotá.
Seven Artists in Cartagena. School of Fine Arts, Cartagena.
1989 Photographs, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá.
1988 Mes de la Fotografía, Museum of Modern Art, Bogotá.
1984 Colombian Abstract Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá.
1983 Art de la Rue, Art de L’Atelier, School of Fine Arts, Paris, France.
1982 Colombian Art during the 20th Century, Centro Colombo Americano. Bogotá.
1981 Fotografie Lateinamerika von 1860 bis heute, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland.
1980 Ethnographic Photography, National Museum. Bogotá.

Selected Publications

1999 Las Voces de la Tierra (soudscapes of the Amazon, the Andes and the Caribbean), Diego Samper Ediciones.
1998 Makuna, Portrait of an Amazonian People, Smithsonian Institution Press.
1996 Los Andes del Quindío, Diego Samper Ediciones.
1995 Discovering Ecuador, various authors, National Geographic and Imprenta Mariscal.
1995 Llanos, Diego Samper Ediciones.
1995 Mompox, Isla en el Tiempo, Diego Samper Ediciones.
1994 Caribbean Carnival, Diego Samper Ediciones.
1993 Colombia Magica, Colina.
1993 Colombia, Caminos del Agua, Diego Samper Ediciones.
1988 Artefactos, Villegas ed.

lecture series, workshops and bibliographic exhibitions

2003 The Art of Nature Photography, lecture series, Celebrity Cruises.
Creative Travel Photography, workshop, Vancouver, BC.
2002 At the Heart of the World. lecture series, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC.
2001 Travels to the land of the Jaguar, The Condor and the Eagle, lecture series, Ferry Building Gallery, West Vancouver, B.C.
1997-1998 Colombia Mágica, Volkerkundemuseum, Zurich, Switzerland; Pabexpo, La Habana, Cuba. Eduardo Síbori Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Center for the Indian Culture, New Delhi, India.

Ibirika, Northwest Amazon, 1979-80