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Internationally acclaimed photographer Blair Bunting led an inspiring evening exploring creativity, perspective, and the stories that connect us.
An award-winning commercial photographer known for his portraits of professional athletes, entertainers, and global brands, Bunting has built an extraordinary career by seeing the world differently. Drawing from his lived experience as an autistic artist, he offered a unique perspective on creativity and observation.
In conjunction with the Common Senses Festival 2026 and The Durham Museum's exhibition of Bunting's train photography, One-Track Mind, this special presentation explored his artistic journey, the inspiration behind his train photography, and how photography became both a creative outlet and a way of connecting more deeply with the world around him.
Presented in partnership with Common Senses, an organization dedicated to exploring and celebrating the uniqueness and commonalities of humanity through the arts, science, accessibility, and disability acceptance, the evening celebrated the many ways people experience, interpret, and share the world around them.
Before the lecture, guests were invited to attend Preferred Interest Talks from 5:00 to 6:00 PM, presented in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective. Inspired by the Common Senses Festival's preferred interest track, Preferred Interest Talks was the culmination of workshops in which train enthusiasts took the stage to share stories, memories, knowledge, and personal experiences centered on their love of trains. Lifelong rail fans and curious listeners alike gathered to celebrate the joy of sharing passions and building community through storytelling.
Blair Bunting is an American photographer whose work explores portraiture, aviation, the automobile, and the relationship between light and storytelling. Over the past two decades, he has photographed many of the world's most recognizable athletes, celebrities and cultural figures while creating award-winning campaigns for leading brands around the world.
Known for his cinematic approach to lighting, Bunting is the only photographer to have been sponsored by three major camera manufacturers—Nikon, Hasselblad, and Canon. He is also recognized for completing the world's first commercial photo shoot at the edge of space, a project that pushed both the technical and creative boundaries of the medium.
When the pandemic brought commercial productions to a standstill, Bunting turned his attention to the railways of the American West. What began as a way to stay sharp behind the camera evolved into a long-term body of work, using passing trains as an opportunity to study light, weather, timing, and composition with the same discipline he brings to commissioned assignments.
His work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Lürzer's Archive, Graphis, and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, as well as receiving an Emmy nomination. Whether photographing a world-renowned public figure or a solitary freight train crossing the desert, Bunting's work is united by a fascination with light and the stories it reveals.
Bridgit Kuenning is a writer, mom, sometimes performer who lives at the intersection of creativity and woowoo. Her work has appeared in the Omaha World Herald, the Insider, Hippocampus Magazine, the Random Sample Review and elsewhere. Her play "Disability is not a Dirty Word" was produced by Anastasis Theatre Co in 2023. You can find her on Instagram and YouTube, talking about life, writing, and tarot.
Angélica Perez is a Core Teaching Artist with the Nebraska Writers Collective, where she supports Teaching Artists and young poets, helps to run monthly open mics and slams in Omaha, and leads poetry workshops with incarcerated people throughout Nebraska. Perez is also a faculty member of The Naturalist School. Her work there is rooted in creative ecology; she leads workshops on nature writing, native seed collecting, and tree planting. You'll often find her in a tree or on her longboard, trying to add to her collection of bumps, bruises, and bug bites.
Nebraska Writers Collective
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