Jerry R. Harke was born and raised in the mid-western United States. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and a Master of Arts degree in Sociology. Over the years he has made his home in several metropolitan areas including Seattle-Tacoma, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington DC, Norfolk, VA and Pittsburgh, and has traveled through a number of other countries also living briefly for two and one-half years in Asia. Mr. Harke now lives with his wife in Northern Virginia in a suburb of Washington, D.C.

 An interest in art came at an early age for him when he spent hours creating pencil sketches, often using school photos of classmates as an inspiration to draw portraits. Later, he began photographing places he traveled. While in college, his interests in journalism, advertising, photography, and broadcasting bloomed. During this time, as editor of his college newspaper and as a part-time radio announcer and board operator, he learned offset printing, graphic design and layout, broadcasting, photography studio work, lighting, film developing, and photographic printing.  

Mr. Harke speaks of photography as his inspiration and describes it as a creative labor requiring both heart and soul. His professional life has placed him in the related worlds of advertising, publishing, communications, and art, and he continues to remain in the presence of, and works closely with, others involved in photography, modeling, print, broadcast, graphic arts and design. His photographic interests encompass a wide variety of subjects including still-life, landscape, architecture, fine art and nude figure art, flowers, animals, and travel locations. Harke’s work often involves beautiful models, and especially nude figure art.

 Harke’s books of photography include The Edwardian Lawn Dress: Gentle and Timeless, In Sappho’s Secret Garden: A Thesaurus of Love, and Nu Art en Noir et Blanc. The lawn dress book includes 160 pages of Harke’s photographs of beautiful women from around the world modeling a wide collection of lovingly hand-crafted and authentic Edwardian lawn dresses, each well over 100 years old. His second book features imagery recalling the legend of Sappho from ancient Greece. Again, Harke uses the beauty of women found around the world to show artistic and tastefully presented images of Sapphic interaction. Finally, Harke most recent book, Nu Art en Noir et Blanc includes 408 pages of black and white nud e photographic imagery captured over the past years in both studio settings and the great outdoors.

 Harke is also a novelist and has recently published two works of fiction. The first is titled “Lock Knot” and the second “On Hell’s Doorstep,” both from Marigot Publishing House, Inc.

Harke’s photography portfolio can be seen online at www.jrharkephotography.com.