Daniel Forster

Daniel Forster

Daniel Forster was born on Valentine’s Day, 1948 in Murten, Switzerland. After an apprenticeship in a photo studio in Berne, he became a freelance photographer in 1974 and has since covered thirteen America’s Cups, 1977 – 2017, and twelve Olympic Games, 1972 – 2016, one of them the Winter Games in Calgary.

His photographs appear in every major Yachting magazine in Europe, the USA, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as general interest magazine like TIME and STERN.
The America’s Cups became stepping stones in his career: In 1986/87 TIME magazine sent him for five months to Perth, Australia and displayed his picture of winner Dennis Conner on the February cover.
In 1986 he did the Uruguay to England leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race on board the real time winning maxi yacht UBS Switzerland as a crew member and photographer.
In 1988 Daniel moved from Switzerland to Rhode Island, USA to be closer to the Sea! Daniel was the official photographer for Bill Koch’s America3 team in 1992, which successfully defended the America’s Cup, and in 1995 he photographed the “Women’s Team plus One” quest for the America’s Cup defense. TIME magazine celebrated Team New Zealand’s Victory in 1995 with one of his photos on the cover.

In 1999/2000 he spent the shortest five months of his life reporting about the America’s Cup in Auckland, working for Young America.
2002/2003 did mean another five month in Auckland documenting Dennis Conner’s STARS & STRIPES challenge.
Maxi yacht owners like Bill Koch, MATADOR, Larry Ellison, SAYONARA and Jim Dolan, SAGAMORE, have commissioned Daniel, to document in book format their yacht’s participation at major sailing events.

In 2001/2002 he worked with “illbruck Challenge” to photograph their victorious global circumnavigation during the Volvo Ocean Race by traveling to each stop-over twice for the start and the finish of each leg. Not a new job either; it is his third time covering that race and doing all the stop-overs for a client.

Now Daniel is one of the official photographers in charge of the Rolex Yachting events. Which means covering regattas like the Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta, St. Thomas, New York Yacht Club events, Rolex Fastnet Race, Rolex Big Boat Series in San Francisco, Rolex Swan Cup, Rolex Middle Sea Race and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
This hectic schedule still leaves some time for cruising stories like sailing the Beagle Chanel including a Cap Horn rounding or a trip to the Galapagos archipelago.
Daniel Forster now lives in Jamestown, just across the bridge from Newport, Rhode Island, USA.

During his time off he sails or goes fishing with his daughter Daphne.