Byron Wolfe is a nationally collected and exhibited photographer and has three book publications that include Everyday: A Yearlong Photo Diary, and two collaborative projects; Third Views, Second Sights: A Rephotographic Survey of the American West (with Mark Klett ) and Yosemite in Time: Ice Ages, Tree Clocks, Ghost Rivers (with Mark Klett and Rebecca Solnit).

In his Everyday photographs Wolfe tried to capture a new and compelling photograph each day from his thirty-fifth birthday to his thirty-sixth birthday. He says "The idea was to create a narrative that was attentive to place, change, and the meandering pace and flow of life." The pictures emerged from his daily activities as a father and a professor.  Wolfe continues by saying "I tended to photograph such things as the halo of crumbs left after a flurry of plastic forks had obliterated a birthday cake or the kids' tears following after the inevitably popped party balloon." Wolfe feels that these moments are "truer to the experience of the occasion than a blinding 'just-say-cheese' flashbulb moment."

"For nearly twenty years," Wolfe explains, "I have held a deep and abiding interest in ideas about time, change, and the personal relationships one makes with a place." In breathtaking pieces like The Life of a Cloud (1:58-2:03, April 26, 2003) Wolfe explores the spontaneity and beauty of the fleeting passage of time, while exploring the more ordinary things in life, such as the growth of his children, and the changing of seasons, with a delicate eye for idiosyncrasy and spark.

Wolfe has worked extensively in the broad territory of the American West using 19th century photographs to inform and consider personal contemporary stories of people living in historic landscapes. "I have peered through the window of iconic photographs that define photography as an interpretive art form and used them as a method to examine physical and cultural change in places such as Yosemite national Park."

In Byron Wolfe's Arboretum series he dissects the objects around him with botanist-like science, meanwhile paying attention to what is most exquisite. He was commissioned by the Chico State University Arboretum and by the President of the school to capture the beauty of the 119 acre University Campus through its plant life. "Most of the pictures were made by placing found objects directly onto a flatbed scanner, a technique reminiscent of some of the earliest photochemical processes practiced by 19th century artists."  The large, limited edition botanical prints each have added captions indicating the specimen and place of discovery in the artist's handwriting.

Wolfe is currently an Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Imaging at the California State University, Chico, where he teaches in the Department of Communication Design. His work is held in many permanent collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Wolfe is also a recipient of the Santa Fe Prize for Photography.