BIO

Steve Speer has been photographing the urban and rural landscape since purchasing his first camera in the mid 1970’s. He is a respected photographer whose work is hung in many corporate offices and private residences both nationally and internationally. He studied photography at the Alberta College of Art in the early 1980’s and returned there as a sessional instructor in 2008. He has published two photography books; one on rural China (CHINA - Guangdong Province Portfolio) and another on the visual history of commercial real estate in Calgary (Building on the Bow - Landmarks of Calgary Commercial Real Estate). He was also, the profiled photographer in Freisens Printing’s prestigious, 2015 Engagement Calendar.

Says Steve; “I have always enjoyed the immersive aspect of photography and that is why I was originally drawn to large format film. This format forced me to be slow and methodical because the use of a tripod was necessary and the expense (a single image cost around $4.00) warranted being judicious about my image choices, composition and exposures. I use digital capture now but my approach is the same. I still use a tripod and like to be 'in the moment' when shooting. What appeals to me about digital photography is the precision it provides in camera and the post processing possibilities which are enormous.”

Photographic art is about the vision of the photographer and the final presentation of his or her images. To Steve, an image is not a photograph until it is printed on paper. He says; “nothing is more gratifying than standing in front of a finely visioned, well printed and beautifully framed photographic print and being transported by that image.”