Chris Dunker has photographed industrial culture for over two decades. His father introduced photography to Chris at an early age. Chris attended Al Weber Workshops and classes at the community college where Chris’s father taught photography. Dunker earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Art and Design with a photography concentration and a minor in Philosophy from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In 1995 he completed a Masters of Fine Arts in photography from Utah State University. Chris grew up in China Lake, California which is in the isolated and remote high desert east of the Sierras. This austere and harsh environment is punctuated with mining outposts, rock art, and industrial-military structures, all influences of Dunker’s formative years. A strong interest in industrial music and performance groups like Survival Research Laboratories expanded his understanding of how industrial dynamics could be integrated into art forms and how an aesthetic could be derived from objects of utility.
As an Assistant Professor of Photography at Utah State University, Dunker taught History of Photography and many other classes. Research in this field broadened his awareness of how photographers consider the role of industrial culture in relation to the human condition.
