Ross den Otter was born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, and raised in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. He began his career as a newspaper photographer while a teenager in the 1980s and later moved to Vancouver to study photography at Langara College. He is a mixed media artist, working in photography, metal smithing, painting and printmaking. For over two decades, his commercial photographic work has appeared in publications across North America, promoting arts and cultural performers and performances.