Ted Degener

Inspired while he was in college by the 1973 publication Shelter by Lloyd Kahn and Bob Easton which featured vernacular architecture and promoted more sustainable modes of living, Ted Degener drove cross country to see the Watts Towers for himself. This was just the first of what would become a lifetime of trips. Using books like Michael Schuyt’s Fantastic Architecture, Roger Cardinal’s Outsider Art, and SPACES Founder Seymour Rosen’s In Celebration of Ourselves, Degener began planning routes to visit and document self-taught artists across the country, in addition to roadside attractions, eccentric festivals, and American religious activities. He is a staff photographer and contributing editor for Raw Vision and lives and works in New Hampshire. He continues to travel across the country to photograph artists.