Michael Godsil was born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois, and is a graduate of Knox College. He is in his 32nd year of teaching photography and digital photography in the Department of Art & Art History at Knox College. His personal, creative photography is primarily of landscapes, nature details, and architectural subjects. In addition to using current digital camera equipment, Godsil still occasionally uses a large format, 4" x 5" field camera, or a medium format camera with analog black & white film and traditional darkroom processes.
Past self-assigned creative photography projects have involved multiple trips over 30 years to the American Desert Southwest to photograph isolated Anasazi Indian ruins, and a trip to Peru to photograph Inca ruin sites, including Machu Picchu. In July 2017, Godsil photographed glaciers and icebergs in Iceland and Greenland for another ongoing, self-assigned creative project that spans the past 30 years, and which has also involved photographing receding glaciers in Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, Montana, and New Zealand.