Steve Balcourt

Braxton County

Studied Fashion Photography at Fashion Institute Of Technology and Commercial Photography at The Art Center College Of Design. Studied under Rod Dresser, assistant to Ansel Adams.

Website

My approach to image making is a meditative and contemplative one. It is an exploration of feelings as much as it is an exploration of what I am seeing. Exploring my surroundings I develop a feeling for the place, the quality of light, and the setting that I may want to photograph. As this process evolves over time, sometimes a few minutes transpires, sometimes a few hours, or more often times even days, it becomes very clear to me what to photograph, if anything at all. The more successful images manifest themselves when I have taken the time to settle into a place and find the solitude it has to offer. It is at this time I find myself seeing things that are special. Sharing these encounters with others, through my photographic images, is one of my greatest joys.

Biography

Born in 1949 in Brooklyn, NY, I received early exposure to art and artists through my father, a photo-realist painter/illustrator, with a studio in mid town Manhattan. I started making photographs in 1966 as editor of my high school yearbook, using a Rolliflex 120mm twin lens reflex camera. My current images are made with a Zone VI 8X10 wood field camera using old Goerz Dagor and Artar lenses. I make Silver Chloride contact prints from my negatives. I also produce Platinum/Palladium prints of select images in limited editions. I do not make photographic images to be enlarged, but see them as contact prints from the beginning.

After graduating high school, I studied fashion photography at the Fashion Institute Of Technology in NYC. As a student of commercial photography at The Art Center College Of Design, Los Angeles, California, I was introduced to and learned to master the use of large format cameras.

In 1999, I was awarded a scholarship to attend an intensive photographic workshop with Rod Dresser who was an assistant to Ansel Adams.

Other Creative Skills

Photography, Printmaking

Steve Balcourt's Work

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