Dr Nicholas Hellmuth has been photographing Maya ruins since he wandereddown to Mexico in 1962 with a Leica III-G. He has been engaged in professionalphotography and archaeological field work since 1965, the year he discoveredthe 1200 year old Tomb of the Jade Jaguar at Tikal. He graduated from Harvardcum laude with a thesis (summa cum laude) on this fabulousfind at Tikal. In 1969 he received a MA degree in anthropology from BrownUniversity with a thesis on the art of the Teotihuacan empire of Mexicoand its influence on Maya art of Guatemala. This same year he formed theFoundation for Latin American Anthropological Research (F.L.A.A.R.) as afederally tax exempt, non-profit research and educational institute. DrHellmuth has been the Director for three decades.
Hellmuth was excavator and photographer for a Harvard University PeabodyMuseum expedition to the Peruvian coastal desert in 1967. He undertook photographyand excavation again in Peru during 1968 at Inca period fortress sites inthe high Andes for a Yale University project. During 1971 he was awardedan appointment as Visiting Fellow in the Dept of History of Art, Yale University.
In 1980-82 he again held a three-semester Visiting Fellowship at Yale,concurrent with a one semester Fellowship from the Organization of AmericanStates (OAS). His topic was to research the problem of grave robbing atMaya sites. Dr Hellmuth subsequently completed a five-year honorary positionat the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, arranged by DrMichael Coe. His focus was analysis of tropical flora and fauna picturedin ancient Maya art (especially felines, reptiles, birds, and insects).Hellmuth is also an accomplished nature photographer.
Director of the Yaxha Archaeological Expedition to Guatemala in 1971-1974,Hellmuth also led expeditions to map the ancient Maya sites of Nakum andTopoxte Island. His discoveries in archaeology have led to being a gueston CBS-TV, on an ABC-TV special on Maya archaeology, and on the PBS Odysseyprogram on the Maya. He has also served as staff consultant for PyramidFilms for their documentary on Maya archaeology of Belize. His work at Yaxhaand Nakum was filmed by NBC-TV (by the famous documentary film maker P ierreDominique Gasseau, Academy Award winner for The Sky Above the Mud Below).
Hellmuth's ability to wear the ancient stone yokes in the pre-Columbianform of their sacred ballgames has led him to be filmed twice, for WBCC-TVand subsequently for a Maya show on the Discovery Channel, a program inthe series "Arthur C. Clark's Mysterious Universe."
In 1986 Hellmuth finished his Ph.D. in art history at Karl-Franzens Universitaet,Graz, Austria, on the iconography of Early Classic Maya underworld godsof Guatemala. This opus has been published in a 2-volume English editionand a coffee table bilingual (German-English) edition as "Monster andMen in Maya Art," Akademische Druck u.Verlagsanstalt, Graz, Austria.
As a professional photographer, Hellmuth's records of art and archaeologyare increasingly being used for both scientific and popular publications.National Geographic Society used a selection of his photographs to illustratetheir hardcover special publication "The Mysterious Maya," byGeorge and Gene Stuart.
Many Japanese publishers have recognized the quality of his photographicwork. Hellmuth-F.L.A.A.R. photographs of Maya art or architecture have appearedin Japanese books on chocolate, on ancient music, and in lavish Japanesecoffee table books on pre-Columbian civilizations.
4,000 of Hellmuth's photographs are available for students and scholarsin the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). 10,000 of Hellmuth's photographsare in the library of Dumbarton Oaks-Harvard University. Many thousandsof Hellmuth's color slides are at the library of the University of Texasat San Antonio. A sample of the archive is at Brigham Young University.Several thousand photographs are at the University of Vancouver, Canada.His photographs have been used by the University of Texas Press, Universityof Oklahoma Press, and many other publishers worldwide.
His photographs of Maya archaeology and associated tropical ecology havebeen exhibited in Austria, Germany, Guatemala, and across America.
For the last decade Hellmuth has been Research Associate in the Dept.of Anthropology, Washington University (St. Louis). Until BCC decided towithdraw from international multi-cultural programs, Dr Hellmuth was VisitingProfessor at Brevard Community College for six years. He has been a consultantfor the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. Recently he was honoredby the Japanese Ministry of Education with an appointment as Visiting Professor,National Museum of Japan.
Professor Hellmuth's photography equipment includes 3 Leicas, 2 Nikons,3 Hasselblads, a Linhof 4x5, a Linhof 8x10, plus countless lenses and accessories.F.L.A.A.R. also has a Seitz Super RoundShot, the best 70mm film-based panoramaand rollout camera in the world. Overall, F.L.A.A.R. has unusually sophisticatedcamera equipment for an archaeology research institute.
On the basis of his international recognition and the arsenal of equipmentwith which he has experience, Hellmuth was selected by Better Light to bethe beta-tester for its prototype digital turntable rollout camera system.
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updated March 14, 1999