Welcome to Dick Anderson Creations!
Explore my site to see and purchase the photos I’ve taken throughout the years.
Take a peek into my book “Solo” and see what inspires my writing.
Enjoy the music of AnderSongs and leave your own review.
For years I have wanted to gather together my creative content in the three areas I love best: photography, writing, and music. Over my 84 years, these avocations have competed with my occupations: first as a researcher for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; next while teaching seniors Urban Studies at Eastern High School in Washington, D.C.; and finally while founding and managing Art for People—a graphics design firm catering to not-for-profit advocacy groups—while also taking on the role of Creative Consultant for the National Magazine Award winning Family Therapy Networker (now Psychotherapy Networker). During those years, music and photography and writing would occupy whatever spare time I could find.
Music came first. As you’ll discover on the AnderSongs portion of this website, I stumbled onto songwriting after hearing John Prine perform at D.C.’s famed Cellar Door. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, I penned some fifty songs, twenty-four of which are featured on this website. Two of those featured won first and second prize in the Singer’s Studio annual Washington, D.C. area songwriters contest. Subsequently, peddling my songs to Nashville, I was invited to move there, but my family and my graphics design business took precedence. Kick back, check out these songs, and tell me what you think.
Next came the photography. A long-time camper, hiker and wilderness enthusiast, I decided in my 57th year that I could no longer postpone a lifetime desire to travel solo in the backcountry of the northern wilds. From that point until my 70th year, I would annually reserve at least two weeks to shake off city life and rediscover my natural roots in the most remote and scenic wilderness destinations. In doing so, I found my camera to be a creative companion and documentarian. I have selected a significant portion of those photographs, along with others from my various travels, to offer for sale on this website. (Check out my suggestions on ways to display your photos, and be sure to read and understand the licensing terms for your purchases.)
Finally, the writing. Upon retirement, I decided it was time to sum it all up. Thus was born Solo: Venturing Alone in the Northern Wilds and its companion volume Solo: The Photographs. To find excerpts of the former and a complete online viewing of the latter—just click on the drop-down submenus in the Writing section of this website. Other selections, from “Canoeing the Kenai” to earlier articles from the Networker are
also available to read. As always, I welcome your email comments.
I must mention a project of which I am especially fond— my ongoing photography/poetry collaboration with my daughter Laurel, herself a published poet. To see the results of our collaboration thus far, click here.
Finally, I find myself with a new avocation—that of working to educate others and myself on how we can turn this great ship of global warming away from catastrophe. That is why I encourage you to investigate, join and contribute generously to those organizations that are working effectively to protect our lands, both in the wild and in our own neighborhoods. (Click here to see a list of just a few of these organizations.)
Hope to hear from you soon.
Dick Anderson
Dick Anderson is a writer, photographer, and songwriter. A father and grandfather, Dick has traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. His work has ranged from railroad Gandy dancer, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee researcher, inner–city high school teacher, and co-founder of Art for People, a graphics design firm assisting not-for-profit clients. For more than four decades he was Editorial and Creative Consultant for the National Magazine Award-winning Psychotherapy Networker. A wilderness and environmental advocate, Dick resides with his wife Janet in Takoma Park, MD. Email Dick at [email protected].