Albert D. Horner, celebrated Pinelands photographer and preservationist, has died at 77

Albert D. Horner, 77, of Medford Lakes, celebrated Pinelands photographer and outspoken nature preservationist, volunteer, and veteran, died Wednesday, May 29, of cardiac arrest at Virtua Marlton Hospital.

An avid fisherman and hunter as a youth in South Jersey, Mr. Horner turned to photography in earnest in his 30s and became a tireless champion of the Pinelands National Reserve and other nature preserves around the world. He and his camera traveled for more than four decades to the Scottish Highlands, Navajo reservations in the American Southwest, the high desert of eastern Oregon, and elsewhere to photograph the wonders of the natural world.

But he always returned to South Jersey, the place, he said, he knew and loved best. “Albert’s muse,” his family said in a tribute, “was the beauty of the Pinelands.”

Seeking unique photos of the forests, cedar swamps, wandering waterways, and fields of wildflowers that comprise the one million acres of the Pinelands, Mr. Horner drove on sandy trails for hours, often just before dawn, to find just the right place to catch the sunrise and the images it produced. He usually checked the lunar cycle and weather forecast, and pored over satellite photos, before selecting a location to document, and many of his images were taken from the rooftop luggage rack of his sport utility vehicle.

He was fascinated, he said often, by the colors, shapes, and shadows he encountered. He sought “moodiness, something people don’t normally see,” and told The Inquirer in 2012: “I like the mornings when everything is damp and wet so the colors tend to be much more saturated, and the light from the sun is low.”

His photographs were exhibited at the Noyes Museum of Art at Richard Stockton University, M. Thomas Galleries in Haddonfield, art centers in Collingswood and Millville, and elsewhere around the region. His signature show, “Preserving the Pinelands: Albert Horner’s Portraits of a National Treasure,” was hosted by the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton from October 2019 to January 2022.

Mr. Horner appeared in many videos, offered workshops to other photographers, and spoke often of his work and volunteer preservation efforts at libraries and garden clubs, and to conservation groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Maryland. He planted trees, protested pipelines and other environmental disruptions, and served on the board of trustees of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.

He wrote opinion pieces for The Inquirer and other publications about natural preservation, and his 144-page photo book, Pinelands: New Jersey’s Suburban Wilderness, was published in 2015. One online reviewer said: “I could almost smell the piney air and feel the soft sand and pine needles beneath my feet.”

He became familiar with the Pinelands and other natural preserves in South Jersey earlier as a traveling sales representative for fishing tackle companies, and taught himself about cameras and photography. “I saw him as a Renaissance man, self-schooled in everything on earth,” a friend said in an online tribute.

Albert Darcy Horner was born Aug. 7, 1946, in Riverside, N.J. He grew up with brothers Earl and Jeff, and sister Debbie, and was called Darcy by family and friends until his daughter, Darcy Joy, was born.

He worked nearly full time at a deli during his senior year in high school, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High in Camden, and served as an Army communications specialist and cryptography machine operator in France and Germany after graduation. His whole family enjoyed fishing and hunting, but Mr. Horner was just as interested in photography, and his brother Earl said he would often shoot deer with his camera instead of the bow and arrows his fellow hunters preferred.

He married Sandra Apple, and they had daughter Darcy Joy. After a divorce, he met Diane Balsley at a Pink Floyd concert, and they married in 2000.

Mr. Horner enjoyed reading nonfiction and traveling across the country and throughout Europe. His last trip was to the Faroe Islands in Denmark, and, of course, he befriended a local nature photographer.

He and his wife created their own backyard nature sanctuary and spent hours together watching the birds and fish. He was spiritual, meditated 45 minutes every day, and, his family said, “was a very thoughtful and generous individual.”

“He was compassionate, a listener and not a talker,” his brother Earl said. “He was the most moral man I ever met. Everything had to be done right.” His wife said: “He was committed passionately to the things he cared about.”

In addition to his wife, daughter, siblings, and former wife, Mr. Horner is survived by three grandchildren and other relatives.

A celebration of his life is to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Bamboo Brook, 170 Longview Rd., Far Hills, N.J. 07931.