Artist Gallery

Ed Olen

Born and raised in suburban Southern California, I had always dreamed of a life more metropolitan. Amongst the monotonous rows of cookie cutter homes sprouting up around me in Orange County, I yearned for visual stimulation. I found it first photographing the forgotten buildings around skid row in downtown Los Angeles. From there, my travels have taken me to New York, Paris, London, Istanbul, Rome, Florence, Venice, and to the vivid colors of Miami. It is in these vibrant cities that I have captured the beautiful detail of the statues, fountains, and buildings that I so longed for growing up.

In 2000, I began showing my work in restaurants, bookstores, and coffee shops in Laguna Beach, Long Beach, and Solana Beach. 2003 was my first summer exhibiting at the Sawdust Art Festival & Festival of the Arts. In the summer of 2002, I opened my own fine art photography gallery in Laguna Beach. After 3 years, I closed my gallery to focus on portraiture and fashion photography. I currently work with Coast and Preferred Destinations Magazines as their lead photographer. Other current clients include The OC Register, Orange Coast Magazine, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Laguna College of Art & Design, NEXT, and OC Metro.

I have donated my work for the silent auction for the “SPLASH” and “World‘s Fair” 1, 2 & 3 for ASF of Orange County, “Art for AIDS” 2 & 3 benefiting the Laguna Art Museum and ASF, “One in Eight” benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, HRC, ECCO, The Center of OC, and immediately after 9/11, I helped raise over $3,000 for the American Red Cross by donating all sales of my images of the World Trade Center.

Collectors of my work have included Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg, comedian Carol Leifer and television producer Tom Leonardis.