S. Vote
I think about art in much the same way I think about life - that it is a collection of individual chapters connected by a common thread. For me, the thread is photography. At the age of twelve I bought my first 35 mm SLR camera with money I had saved. Since then, I've spent thousands of hours taking pictures and then bringing them to light - and life - in the darkroom.
As much as I loved the smells, the sounds, the damp and the hands-on experience of the darkroom, I gradually moved towards digital photography. And by 2001, I was fully immersed in pixels and bytes. I love the immediacy of the digital realm.
As an artist stimulated by the world around me, I see beauty in the everyday. When I lived in New York City I saw that beauty in something as mundane as the taxicab. By then, Checker Cabs were nearly all gone and so every time I spotted one I would excitedly hail it. I had no destination in mind; I just wanted to settle in and enjoy the ride. My wife and I even hired one on our wedding day.
And while the Checker has gone from NYC now, today's yellow cab in its own modest way provides an almost soothing rhythm amid the urban chaos. I love that you wave your arm in the air and seconds later (except when it's raining and taxis are nowhere to be found) you're whisked away to your destination, free to sit back and watch the movie-like images of life pass by.
I hope that when people see these pieces they feel, as I do, that beauty is in the most ordinary of things.
Bio
Steven Vote is an internationally recognized Australian photographer and emerging artist. After a decade of living in New York City, Steven currently resides in Western Massachusetts. Almost 20 years of working in advertising and editorial photography has taken him all over the world. Steven's underlying passion for fine art photography is now unfolding. His work has been featured in American Photo, PDN, Popular Photography, Applied Arts, and singled out by Graphis Photo Annual for exceptional imagery.
