Press Release

Artist Bio

 

 

 

 

Stephen Berkman: Quadrascope
September 6 – October 14, 2007

Through his glass plate ambrotypes and installations, it appears that photographer Stephen Berkman has traveled back in time to the 19th century. A clever illusionist, Berkman uses the wet collodian process, popular from the 1850s to the 1880s to stage images, which while rooted in the past, also refer to the conceits of the 21st century. Using four lenses, light, a moth, and screens Berkman illustrates how an image is refracted or captured through a camera. The result is a magical, lyrical display that would have delighted viewers in the 19th century as it delights audiences today.

Stephen Berkman was born in Syracuse New York, but is now based in Pasadena, California. Currently a member of the film faculty at Art Center College of Design, Berkman received the Great Teacher Award in 1996 and again in 2003. Berkman's film work has screened in both national and international film festivals. In 2001, 2002 and 2003, Stephen received an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, and in 1999, and 2004 he received an Art Center College of Design Faculty Enrichment Grant. Berkman served for six years on the board of directors of the Pasadena based arts group AKA New Town. In 2000, he was a visiting artist at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Other projects with the Getty include “Artist Point of View Talks” to accompany the exhibits Voyages and Visions, and Julia Margaret Cameron Photographer.  He is also the creator of educational video detailing the wet-collodion process for the Getty website, and art information room. Berkman's photographs have been featured in the book Photography's Antiquarian Avant- Garde, The New Wave in Old Processes (Abrams Publisher, 2002). Other publications include Blind Spot, Art in America, i-D, magazine, and the book The Journal of Contemporary Photography: Strange Genius. In 2002 Berkman was commissioned to create photographic tintypes in Romania for Oscar winning director Anthony Minghella’s feature film Cold Mountain. Stephen Berkman: Cold Mountain and Other Journeys was exhibited at the Museum of Photographic Arts, along with Berkman’s series From Memory. Stephen Berkman holds a B.F.A. in film from Art Center College of Design.

The UAM is extremely grateful to the Instructionally Related Activities Fund, the Constance W. Glenn Fund for Exhibition and Education Programs, CSULB College of the Arts, the Bess Hodges Foundation, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services for their continued programming support.

Image credit: Stephen Berkman, Quadrascope installation, undated, mixed media, courtesy of the artist.