Featured Artist
Contraposto is very fortunate to have contemporary artist, Stephen Chalmers inaugurate the Featured Artist Section of cphomedecor.com.
Stephen Chalmers has worked as a Lead Treatment Counselor to Severely Emotionally Disturbed children, worked as an Emergency Medical Technician, and taught gang children photography - informing his projects which deal with issues of loss. Chalmers has taught many workshops in alternative photographic processes and digital imaging, and been a visiting artist at numerous colleges and universities. He has also been a contributor to four books, and has been in group and solo exhibitions throughout the US and also in Australia, Ireland, British Columbia, England, South Africa, and China. Stephen Chalmers earned his MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, and was professor of Photography and Digital Media in the state of Washington for eight years. The work of Stephen Chalmers is in several collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Lightwork, Polaroid, and the Getty Research Institute. Selections from his projects and more biographical information can be seen at www.askew-view.com.
Stephen Chalmers has worked as a Lead Treatment Counselor to Severely Emotionally Disturbed children, worked as an Emergency Medical Technician, and taught gang children photography - informing his projects which deal with issues of loss. Chalmers has taught many workshops in alternative photographic processes and digital imaging, and been a visiting artist at numerous colleges and universities. He has also been a contributor to four books, and has been in group and solo exhibitions throughout the US and also in Australia, Ireland, British Columbia, England, South Africa, and China. Stephen Chalmers earned his MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, and was professor of Photography and Digital Media in the state of Washington for eight years. The work of Stephen Chalmers is in several collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Lightwork, Polaroid, and the Getty Research Institute. Selections from his projects and more biographical information can be seen at www.askew-view.com.
Stephen Chalmers
Dump Sites
Chalmers' photographs of sites where serial killers dumped their victims are haunted with the final experiences of the victims that were brutally disposed of. Obscured by the passage of time and often invoking the natural beauty surrounding them--wilderness areas being ideal dumping places--Chalmer's pictures challenge photography's ability to expose the spectral history of a location and the knowledge of its viewers. He learns of the locations by reading public records of closed serial killer cases and uses Google Earth and GPS coordinates to determine the exact spot where the bodies were found. On location with a large-format camera, Chalmers manipulates the plane of focus so that the only sharp area of the picture is the ground where the body was found. The effect produces a slightly eerie, childlike perspective with sensitivity to the victim that was dumped there. It is Chalmer's hope that these well-crafted and engaging pictures will act as the overdue and deserved memorial for the victims and their families.
Images © Stephen Chalmers 2009
