The Many Faces Of Stephanie Vovas
Portrait Of The Artist
….We first learned about the photographic portraiture of Stephanie Vovas through our left coast corespondent Ed Simmons, who recently wrote a piece for us about the pending opening of LA LIVE in Los Angeles. Ms. Vovas produced the portraits of Mr. Simmon’s for the post. We liked them so much here at the studio that we asked Ed to introduce us to more of her work. We were pleasantly surprised. She has an uncanny knack for enhancing the effect’s of the still image, through her choice of subject, lighting, color and treatment of the final image. The images feel like “film stills” from a movie set production, reminiscent of Cindy Sherman’s early self portraits, but with a contemporary twist. Here is a sampling of her creativity at work. To see more, log on to www.stephanievovas.com…………
www.StephanieVovas.com
BIO
Stephanie Vovas first picked up a camera as a young girl growing up in Springfield, MA in the 70’s and has been hooked ever since. She loves to shoot. She’s been known to squeal out in joy when she gets the image just right.
Despite this passion, it never led her to think photography was something to pursue as a career, and so after high school she simply experienced life. She moved to San Francisco, traveled throughout Europe, and then took a very long cross country drive which led to living in several random locations, often as a result of running out of gas. She worked in a retirement home in Denver, CO, was an environmental activist at Redwood Summer in Northern California, and when she found herself in Reno, Nevada working as a change girl with a giant sign on her back that said “Change”, it was in this moment that she realized it was time to change. She decided to pursue her passion for photography and went back to the East Coast to study at the Maine Photographic Workshops.
www.StephanieVovas.com
After school, love brought her to Portland, Oregon where she worked in a camera store, saw lots of live bands, and immersed herself in the mid-90’s art scene. She started experimenting with Polaroid films and processes, which led to a unique and highly stylistic body of work. She co-created a gallery called Barcalounge, where she exhibited her own work and curated shows of other artists. Miniature handmade booklets were made for every show, which eventually led to a full size art magazine.
Stephanie grew restless in Portland and moved to L.A. to take her photography to the next level. L.A. brought a few gigs assisting photographers, some camera store work, and a graphic design career. Photography took the backburner, until she enrolled in a photo course at The Art Center. Stephanie is now shooting regularly and just had her first solo exhibit in Los Angeles. Her work has become more fashion oriented after teaming up with celebrity hair stylist, Aviva Perea, and make-up artist, Stephen Bowman.
www.StephanieVovas.com
From the Portland Polaroids to today’s vivid digital images, her style has evolved and changed, yet there is a similar feeling that pervades through all her images…the same sort of feeling one gets when listening to groovy 70’s music. A shoot with Stephanie is a wildly fun, yet very intimate party. Fellow students at Art Center often questioned what her tricks are…from “How did you get this person naked?” to “How did you get the colors that way?”
www.StephanieVovas.com
www.StephanieVovas.com
November 30th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Dear Author tonywardstudio.com !
In it something is. Thanks for council how I can thank you?