Karen Glaser

Photographer Karen Glaser, of Pittsburgh, PA, Chicago, IL, and Fort White, FL, passed away peacefully on February 18, 2026, after a long struggle with Parkinson's. Born June 12, 1954, Karen loved her husband, John Stranick, her cats and dogs, her career in photography, and the underwater world that covers most of our planet. She was talented, funny, an environmental activist, and a collector of unique chairs. Her friendship, artistry, wry humor, kindness, generosity, love of travel, attention to fragile ecosystems, and great personal style will be deeply missed by her husband, and her many friends and students far and wide.

Karen had a hugely successful career as a fine art underwater photographer, diving fearlessly into both fresh and saltwater in search of her subject. She swam with sharks. And she saw submerged flora and fauna as enchanted forests as disorienting as the North Wood in Hansel & Gretel. Her approach to underwater photography was uniquely hers, (for more see:www.karenglaserphotography.com).

She was widely recognized through museum exhibitions at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Portland Art Museum, SE Museum of Photography, Harn Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art, The Harry Ransom Center, the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, and many more. She was the Photographer Laureate of Tampa, FL., from 2010 to 2011. Publications followed, as did large city commissions and awards. Her work is in many public and private collections.

Her artful life began when Karen received a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. In 1983, a birthday gift of a Minolta Weathermatic camera changed her trajectory. Always a swimmer (growing up she was enamored with Johnny Weismuller) and a licensed scuba diver, a natural segue was for her to bring the camera into her much-loved rivers, springs, swamps and oceans. There she found joy, creativity and poetry, writing beautifully about her process and unique use of underwater sunlight "as it graced and veiled the watery landscapes," she wrote, "dramatic, refracting and bending ... at times elegant and at others, foreboding."

She was an Adjunct Instructor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Chicago and Columbia College of Chicago, frequent participant and exhibitor at Houston FotoFest, and a nominee for Prix Pictet, among other accolades. Her self-made picture postcards were welcomed by all who received them, illustrated by her beautiful photographs and witticisms. Several of her Dark Shark photographs are in law offices in several states, other arenas for her work include, DU Magazin(Switzerland), Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet (FotoFest & Amsterdam, NL), The Mark of Water: Karen Glaser (Blue Sky Gallery), Slate Magazine, National Geographic, Mysterious Manatees and Swimmers: Seventy International Photographers, among others.

Karen was the daughter of Sylvia and Robert Glaser, and is survived by her husband, John Stranick, and dog Artie, both of Fort White FL, and sister Ellen DeBenedetti of Pittsburgh, PA.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday May 24, 2026 at noon at The Historic Thomas Center, Gainesville, Florida, http://www.historicthomascenter.org. RSVP to [email protected] by May 17, 2026.

Donations in Karen's memory can be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research, https://www.michaeljfox.org, or to your local no-kill animal shelter.