Frank Hunter was born in El Paso, Texas and grew up in the desert southwest. He has an MA in Communications from the University of Colorado and an MFA in Photography from Ohio University where he was the John Cady Graduate Fellow in Fine Art.

Hunter is best known for his large format landscape work in rural Appalachia. He makes prints using the l9th Century Platinum Palladium process. He is the recipient of the Bernhiem Foundation Fellowship, a Light Works Fellowship at Syracuse University and grants from the Polaroid Corporation. His most recent work is a commission done for the Federal Reserve Bank documenting Midtown Atlanta at the turn of the Millennium. The work will be shown at the High Museum in 2003. His work is represented in a number of public and private collections including the Speed Museum, the Denver Museum of Art, the High Museum and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Hunter currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife, the writer, Pam Durban and his son Wylie. He teaches photographic process at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.