Sam Abell learned photography from his father, a teacher, at our home in Sylvania, Ohio.  After graduating from the University of Kentucky he worked for National Geographic as a contract and staff photographer for thirty-three years. He maintains a career as a writer, teacher, and lecturer on photography.

In 1990, his work was the subject of a one-person exhibition and monograph titled Stay This Moment at the International Center of Photography in New York City. Since then he has published four additional collections of work: Seeing Gardens; Sam Abell: The Photographic Life; The Life of a Photograph and Sam Abell Library.