Recent Work

Top to bottom:
Sonya Jones, Joel Campell, Linda Jansma and Gabrielle Peacock
Key staff from The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa Ontario

The Death of Photography?

A couple of years ago, three photographers teamed up in Toronto to exhibit conceptual work on what they called "The Death of Photography. " The title of the show certainly got people thinking about what the digital revolution was doing to the elder statesman of photography: It was hammering it to death in a quick, decisive way.

I have witnessed first-hand the changes this revolution has brought about and it has been unsettling. While one would have hoped to have seen both digital and film-based photography co-existing peacefully side by side for at least another 10 years, this has clearly not happened. The mammoth digital sweep has taken over all facets of photography, leaving one to wonder why did film get obliterated as quickly as it did?

It is sad, and I think it is about time people began to speak out about the intrinsic values of film, the beauty of silver prints and the purposes it serves. Once the current media loses its grip on file formats and the next generation of computers demand new readers rendering saved files obsolete, what will happen from a storage standpoint? And how many digital files actually get turned into high quality prints and what is the guarantee for their permanence?

Film has many outstanding and redeeming qualities. The process is more tactile and hands-on, and a well-made silver print will last for generations to come.. as has already been proven. I doubt film will ever again come back to the esteemed position it held in photography for over 125 years. But I do believe there is a place for it here and now and it should be recognised as such before it is too late. This comes from demand, and unless it is created again, I am afraid the next generation of photographers will never know what a beautiful experience working in a darkroom can be.

" Rascal House" deli in Miami Beach, Fla (1992)

This legendary deli closed down a few years ago. Back in 1992, I photographed customers and staff late one evening with a twin-lens Rolleiflex camera. So much to shoot, like the size of the portions they served and the line-ups that began at 4pm outside their doors. A blast from the past, when delis and diners were in their final days. All photos ©Steve Stober 1992

Legendary Beatles' Photographer Gives Steve Stober An Endorsement!

Harry Benson, photographer to the Beatles, every president since John F. Kennedy, and many other celebrities throughout his long 50+ year career, recently endorsed Steve Stober's work by saying:
"Steve Stober is a serious photographer who gives each subject all his energy and concentration. I can tell that. His work is quite impressive, very personal and well done."

Hands Up!

I get a lot of comments about portraits I take showing hands. The top photograph shows the hands of a classical pianist I had photographed . Hands can be expressive, sculpted, definitely a part of the personality of the sitter and in many cases directly, overtly and consciously affecting the overall look and feel of the portrait. The bottom photograph was done many years ago, of a musician and professor from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Many people have commented on this portrait for its "Karsh-like" quality... probably because of its timelessness and very still, studied composition.

Revisiting Tamara

I recently invited Tamara back to do two more sessions with me. She had first worked with me on the series This Is My Body (first image below). Now she very kindly agreed to return to do some more photos. She proudly pointed out she was not feeling like the same person I knew the last time I had met her. For one thing, she said she had lost about 20 lbs. She was also much more relaxed and confident with herself, taking direction from me with her wry humour and self-deprecating sarcasm evident.

I hope I will gather enough material from the three sessions to put a small show together for her. This would be a great thing to do, to show the continuity of the work and the emotional and physical changes in her. Sometimes I have thought of Lucien Freud's sitter "The Postal Worker" when working with Tamara, and I suppose this was an influence in the semi-reclining and sleeping series I just did with her. It's a different spin on her, without the raw emotional intensity of the earlier work but I think it shows Tamara more at peace with herself.

The Death of Plus-X

Plus-X pan film, produced by the near-obsolete Kodak Corp. for generations, has just been discontinued and will no longer be available. Kodak has been making a habit in recent years, as you may know, of tearing down plants devoted to the production of film and papers, its staple for most of the 20th Century.

So this news came as just another blow for those of us who are firmly committed with our feet on the ground to the usage and output of black and white film, in my case for portrait photography.

Although students and young photographers are thankfully returning back to the roots and are recognising the merits of film-based photography and demanding supplies from high schools and colleges, the industry has not yet accounted for so-to-speak this "new generation" rising from the ashes and are cutting costs by dropping product lines that are no longer deemed profitable based on stats from the 90s...

The death of yet another beloved film such as Plus-X will only create new opportunities in the marketplace and as demand from the young and motivated increases, I hope to see a resurgence, a return back to life of these tried and true films. Am I dreaming in technicolor? Perhaps. But I do have hope that the end is not near, that the sphynx will rise from the ashes...

I started shooting with the legendary Kodak Plus-X back in the 1970s, and always loved the film's grain structure, its panchromatic, wide- ranging base, its subtle evenness of tones and especially how it produced beautiful skin tones for my portraits over the years. The photos live on, unfortunately for now at least, the film that produced them does not.

It had always been there for me. I hope this final "kick in the film canister" is a wake-up call for all young photographers to rise up and demand the return of products deemed obsolete but not-equalled. I'll miss my Plus-X very much.