Interview with Harvey Stein
Harvey Stein is a professional photographer, teacher, lecturer, curator, and author based in New York City. He currently teaches at the International Center of Photography, and in the Master of Professional Studies Program in Digital Photography at the School of Visual Arts and is a frequent lecturer on photography both in the United States and abroad. He has also been a member of the faculty at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Drew University, The New School University, and the University of Bridgeport.
A recipient of a Creative Arts Public Service (CAPS) fellowhip and numerous artist in residency grants, Stein had a book of photographs, Parallels: A Look at Twins, published by E.P. Dutton in 1978. Stein's second book, Artists Observed, was published by Harry Abras, Inc. in 1986. A color volume of photographs called Coney Island, was published by W.W. Norton in 1998. His newest book, Movimento: Glimpses of Italian Street Life, was published in December 2006.
Stein's photographs have been published in such periodicals as The New Yorker, Time, LIfe, Esquire, American Heritage, Smithsonian, The New York Times, Reader's Digest, Glamour, Forbes, Psychology Today, Playboy, Harpers, Connoisseur, Art News, American Artist, New York, People, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and all the major photo magazines, including Camera Arts, Black & White Magazine (cover), Popular Photography, American Photo, Camera, Afterimage, Zoom, Photo Metro, fotoMagazine, and Veiw Camera Magazine.
Stein's photographs have been widely exhibited in the United States and Europe - over 70 one-person and 135 group shows to date. He has also curated numerous exhibits. His photographs are in more than 50 permanent collections, including the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography, the Denver Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), the Portland (Oregon) Museum of Art, Museet for Fotokunst (Odense, Denmark), Musee de La Photographie (Charleroi, Belgium), The Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the corporate art collections of Polaroid, Reader's Digest, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, LaSalle Bank (Chicago), Barclay Bank and Credit Suisse.
His work is represented by the Bruce Silverstein Gallery, Throckmorton Fine Art, June Bateman Fine Art and the Forest Scott group, New York City; and by the Photo Researchers Agency, New York City.
More of his work:
Q: You teach a course in photographic seeing at International Center of Photography. Many argue that ways of seeing cannot be taught. Do you feel you're teaching your students to see, or awakening them to their own unconscious ways of seeing?
I think it’s a blend of both. In the “Photographic Seeing” class that I teach at ICP, we look at the major individual elements that make up a photograph, such as light, color, line, focus/blur, perspective, shape and pattern, etc. Each week I give a shooting assignment that concentrates on one of these elements. So we atomize the photograph, and look intensely at each element individually and intensely. This heightens the student’s awareness and appreciation of this photographic “property” and they practice featuring it in their work. Simultaneously, I am always talking about being intuitive, emotional and accessing the submerged parts of our psyche.
Q: How does teaching relate to your creative process, and how does it affect your photographic practice?
Teaching means I have to pause every week to really consider many and various issues about photography, rather than just making work. In preparing classes, I must do research, think about issues, look at other photographers' work as well as books and exhibits, etc. So I learn in preparing to teach and I learn from my students. Occasionally, the students inspire me and I get ideas for my own work from the classroom.
Q: Do you think that it is important to look at other artists' work, and is a knowledge of art history or the history of photography valuable? For your own work, there seems to be a psychological dimension as well. Is that something you studied?
I’ve always been interested in people and the human condition. I love people; they make life meaningful and rich. So all my life, I’ve studied them, formally in school and informally just being alive and around them. And most of my photographic practice revolves around photographing them. If there is some psychology that seeps into my images, that’s great, it’s one of my aims, in the spirit of learning and understanding more.
I think a knowledge of what others in your field have done in the past and are currently doing is always valuable. Not to copy or emulate them, but to build upon. Knowledge is always positive; it can build confidence and help further your practice. If it gets in your way, jettison it.
Q: Your nude work is not a body of work that you are actively promoting. Is that because you work in long-term projects and a body of work has to reach a certain critical mass before you present it?
I’ve never thought of my images of nudes as critical to my work. I do it casually and occasionally, as the opportunities arise. It’s fun to do, and always challenging. It requires working with the subject in ways different from other activities, such as studio portraiture, street photography. It often takes more arranging and discussing with the subject, given that it is more intimate and often more intense. I don’t actively promote it because I don’t see it as one of my major interests in photography, not because it isn’t long term or a body of work that hasn’t reached a critical mass.
Q: Is there a core idea or set of ideas that shapes your approach to shooting nudes?
Usually my subject and I agree to do some nude photography so we think about location, props, and perhaps why and what I want to shoot and show. Each situation is different. My overriding idea is to enjoy it, be playful, somewhat different and even surreal, and to work collaboratively with the subject. And perhaps to learn more about myself and the subject. And always to make the best image I can.
Q: When you shoot nudes, are they an extension of your portrait sessions, or do the nude sessions come about separately?
Occasionally shooting nudes become an extension of a portrait session, but more often than not, it’s discussed and agreed upon before the session.
Q: Have your subjects approached you to shoot nudes, or do you initiate?
Most of the time I’ll mention it and/or ask about it. A few times the subject has initiated the idea, which is always nice.
Q: Do you consider yourself a technical photographer, and how important is the technical aspect of the work that you make?
I don’t consider myself a technical photographer but I know technique, especially lighting. This comes from taking classes in the past, from reading and looking at photographs, from common sense and from learning while teaching. I think of myself as being intuitive yet thoughtful, and very open to taking chances photographically. Technique for its own sake is an empty exercise. Technique should always be in the service of the image and what you are trying to say.
Q: What recommendations do you have for someone who wants to begin shooting fine art nudes?
My suggestions for someone beginning to shoot fine art nudes is to not be overly serious about it, to have fun with it, to practice, and to avoid clichés and what others have done. Also, do it tastefully with humanity and humility, and always treat your subject with respect and kindness.
Q: Many contemporary photographers are very focused on getting that first solo gallery show, getting their work into a magazine, or putting together their first book. You've achieved those things many times over. Have those accomplishments affected the way you work? Were those milestones ever key motivations, or were they a product of something else? What motivates you now?
These accomplishments do not at all affect the way I work. I don’t think of any of that while doing my photography. That is the past. I’m interested in moving forward and always making new images and learning more about the world and myself through my art. I’d say trying to get shows or gallery exhibits or books published is always a motivation, but not the prime motivation. My main motivation is to make the best images I can, to stretch and grow through my work, and to impart some of the things I have learned back to my students and fellow workers. Doing photography makes me happy and a better person, it has sustained me for many, many years. There is nothing else I’d rather be doing.