Craig Semetko is an American photographer living in Los Angeles. Born and raised near Detroit, Michigan, Semetko became a comedy writer and performer after college and years later discovered photography as another means of storytelling while performing in a show that took him around the world. His comedic background has given him a highly developed sense of the absurd and ironic, resulting in a strong theme of humor throughout his work. In the foreword for Semetko's book UNPOSED, Magnum Photos icon Elliott Erwitt writes, "“Good photographs are tough enough to shoot. Really funny ones are even harder. Good and funny photographs observed in nature not arranged or manipulated but simply observed in real time with amazing consistency, constitute a minor miracle now presented in Mr. Semetko's book...he is the essential photographer. That is, the one who sees what others could not have seen." Semetko's second book, INDIA UNPOSED, won the Printing Industries of America award for Best in Category/Best Art Book 2015.
In 2014 Semetko was one of ten photographers worldwide chosen by Leica Camera to exhibit at the grand opening of its new headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany, honoring 100 years of Leica photography. He's also exhibited at Leica galleries in NYC, Los Angeles, Miami, Salzburg and Frankfurt, and at the Open Shutter Gallery in Durango, Colorado, Camera Obscura in Denver, and the Robert Anderson Gallery in NYC.
Semetko was voted the Film 4 Change 2013 Photographer of the Year, and his work can be found in private collections internationally.
