 Portfolio of
Stephen Weaver
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Tapestry of Grass
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Artist Statement
Photography plays a major role in my personal relationship with the earth and the natural environment. The continuing goal of my photography is to create and extract images from the natural environment that capture the beauty of the earth on an intimate and grand scale.
As a professional geologist and educator, I believe all individuals need to understand and appreciate how our dynamic planet works so that we can responsibly live together without harming our environment. Nature and landscape photographers bear an important responsibility in bringing this message via our images to the general population. My large format landscape photography is made with this goal by striving to make visually exciting images with dynamic lighting and powerful composition that show the great natural beauty of our planet.
About my prints:
Although I start the process of making a photograph by capturing the image on 4x5 transparency film with a large format view camera, I have fully embraced digital technology to produce the final fine-art print. I first make a high resolution scan of the transparency and then prepare this digital file for printing. The computer allows all of the techniques that have been traditionally done in the darkroom such as color correction, burning and dodging to be applied to the final print resulting in accurate yet vibrant prints that show the tonal range of the image at its best. I should stress however that I do not manipulate prints by adding or subtracting elements that were not in the original scene. The final print truly represents the image that I saw in the field.
Ansel Adams stated that the negative was the score and the final print the performance. Modern digital output is no different and today's archival inkjet (giclee) printing from digital files allows me to produce incredible vibrant high-resolution continuous tone color and b&w prints. I use the current state of the art Epson 7600 and Epson 2200 printers with archival ultrachrome inks that when used with archival papers produce stunning prints that have been certified not to fade for over 75-100 years.
Shows
Hays Kansas 5 State Regional Show
Galleries
Business of Arts Center, Manitou Springs, Colorado
The Winter Gallery, Monument, Colorado
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