Deborah Samuel is a fashion, editorial, and fine-art photographer based in Toronto after time spent in Ireland, New York, London, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe. She was quickly recognized for the distinct style of her fashion photographs and her intuitive and intense portraits of celebrities, writers, artists, dignitaries, sports heroes, and musicians, including Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Rush, and Queen Noor. Deborah became an in-demand editorial photographer, working for magazines such as GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Spin, and Entertainment Weekly, LA Times, Saturday Night, Report on Business, Vista, and Maclean’s. She has also directed music videos of musicians and bands for major record companies—Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, and BMG Music Group, to name a few.

In 2000, Deborah turned away from the commercial world of photography to pursue her own personal work. This work evolved into formal portrait studies of animals and nature. In 2012, The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto exhibited Elegy, a solo exhibition of subtle photographs of animal bones. In 2017, The Gardiner Museum exhibited her work, Artifact. Her work is exhibited in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It is included in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, Winnipeg Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and numerous private and corporate collections.

Deborah has lectured widely and led photography workshops throughout North America. She has published four books: Dog, Pup, The Extraordinary Beauty of Birds, and Elementals—an ode to the enduring beauty of nature’s phenomena.