ABOUT: VICTOR STEKOLL

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I have been involved with photography for around 45 years. I began by taking color slides while traveling and then taught overseas for six years in international schools. These schools needed staff that could also produce yearbooks and hence my exploration of black and white film printing in darkrooms began. I enhanced my craft at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. and began a teaching career at Green Acres School in Rockville, Maryland, where I taught photography and other subjects for many years. My black and white collection, all derived from printing negatives in my darkroom, cover my fine art film career from 1985 to 2001, when the digital medium took over my photography. In my teaching, I have always stressed “Learning How to See with a Camera” and giving my students the freedom to capture the world as they see it. 

I was greatly influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, and Joesph Koudelka in working to capture the decisive moment and present the multiculturalism of the world with dignity and curiosity in my portraits and life studies images. My landscapes are meant to demonstrate the beauty and majesty of the earth and to invoke a sense of adventure in the viewer.  For many of the portraits, I spent a good deal of time with the subjects and did not just pass by them quickly. I think this shows in the way one can seem to look into their inner souls upon closer inspection. Every image was created “in camera” and computer enhancement was limited to running levels for exposure and some sharpening.

In 1987 I was asked to photograph a wedding and produced excellent work, while actually getting paid for having a good time! Thus began a career in event photography which lasted about twenty years. It also involved more training in seminars and becoming a member of the Maryland Professional Photographers Association (MPPA) and purchasing lots of expensive cameras and lighting. My wife, Susan Levi, joined the team and she also became a portrait artist with an in-home studio. We photographed over 300 weddings and bar mitzvahs over the years and received great acclaim from our clients. I also won many awards in professional judgings in the 1990s.