I was born in Portland, Maine in 1956 and grew up in Williamstown, Massachusetts and New Canaan, Connecticut. In 1981 I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Film Department of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. My thesis film "Boomerang" was a documentary about Al Gerhards, the Worlds' finest boomerang maker and champion boomerang thrower; the film was exhibited as part of the "What's Happening" film series at The Museum of Modern Art in 1983.
After working in film production for several years I gradually moved into commercial photography, producing multi-image slide shows for clients in New York City. In 1988 I became staff photographer for Frankfurt Gips Balkind, a large graphic design and marketing firm. While there I produced annual reports for such firms as Associated Press, Columbia Pictures and The New York Times. My commercial photography has earned me awards from Communication Arts and Print magazines as well as from American Institute of Graphic Arts. My free-lance photography clients have included Time, Matsuda, MCI, AT&T and GTE.
About 15 years ago I started to put more time into my own, personal, fine-art work. I began by learning as much as I could about the craft of black and white photography. Studying books, photographing every day and taking classes with George Tice at The New School in New York furthered my knowledge. Since 1994 I've had one-man shows at Soho Photo Gallery and The New York Public Library in New York City, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and at The Williston-Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts. In 1995, Hasselblad FORUM, an international photography journal, reproduced some of my work. In a 1996 review of one of my shows, The New York Times wrote: "Paul Stevens is catching a genteel landscape of New England before it fades away."
As far as a "working method" is concerned, I like keeping things simple and consistent. I use a Hasselblad 500CM camera with just a couple of lenses, a bunch of filters and a Gitzo tripod. Everything I use fits into a medium size camera bag and I can walk for miles, not being concerned or distracted by weight. I shoot Plus-X film rated at ASA 100, developed in HC-110 developer, dilution "B", pushed or pulled depending on contrast. I do use Photoshop but only in the most basic "darkroom" way - getting rid of dust and for dodging and burning. I used to print with an Omega D2 4x5 enlarger equipped with a variable contrast cold light head. Now, with a digital workflow I can produce much better, consistent results in less time and I'm not pouring gallons of chemicals down the drain.
My own personal work tends to be very graphic with a strong emphasis on tone, composition and form. My photography and specifically my printing tend to be very "straight" with very little manipulation. Being able to represent the landscape in as simple and authentic a way as possible is important to me. Edward Weston once said that "I should be able to look at my feet and see something to photograph" - I think that everything can be photographed in such a way as to be beautiful as well as revelatory. The things that we see everyday can be the hardest to photograph, but the inherent power within can be understood and appreciated if we just stop, look and see. Photographically and personally I feel a great affection towards New England and more specifically, Maine. The qualities of light, land and people combine to produce an area that I could explore forever.
