Between 1983 and 1986, he worked as an assistant to Richard Avedon in New York City. He continued to work in advertising for a number of years before turning his skills to portraiture with an emphasis on natural history subjects. Liittschwager is now a contributing photographer to National Geographic, Scientific American, Audubon and other magazines. A recent project, One Cubic Foot will be published as a large format book by the University of Chicago Press later this year. In 2008 he collaborated with Alice Waters on the Edible Schoolyard book. In 2002 he produced Skulls and X-Ray Ichthyology: The Structure of Fishes for the California Academy of Sciences. Liittschwager’s earlier books include Archipelago, Remains of a Rainbow, Witness and Here Today.