Richard A. Cooke III

Rikki Cooke, has been a professional photographer for 40 years. Much of that time he worked as a freelancer for The National Geographic Society, where he traveled to much of the world on a variety of assignments. His main interest is focusing on the innate beauty of his subjects and honoring that.

His assignments included shooting two books: America’s Ancient Cities and The Blue Ridge Range as well as work in other National Geographic publications. He also photographed a book for the Smithsonian on Hawaii.

His experience touches the full spectrum of photography, from lighting pyramids to photographing polar bears in the Arctic as well as national advertising campaigns for commercial clients.

Rikki and his wife Bronwyn are the authors of the award-winning book, Molokai, an Island in Time. In the early 1990s they moved back to Molokai. This island was part of his childhood, and today they live on lands that have been with his family for 100 years. They run the educational and arts center, Hui Ho’olana, which is dedicated to healing its lands as well as the students it helps to inspire.