Involved in photography since the age of six, I first explored the medium through pinhole photography, using paper negatives in homemade cardboard cameras. Eighteen years later, in 1998, my black-and-white pinhole images of various architectural sites in Europe and the USA—made between 1993 and 1997—culminated in a one-man show (“Holey Images: Sacred and Other Architectural Spaces in Seven Cities”) in Virginia.
After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1997 (B.A., architectural history, minor in design), I completed two years of additional course work at Community College of Philadelphia in commercial, portrait, digital, and large-format photography. It was during this time that I decided to pursue my interest in photojournalism. I have photographed freelance for the Associated Press and AP Images since 1998, as well as completed regular assignments for the Philadelphia Daily News, the City Paper, the National Basketball Association, QVC Incorporated, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania, among other clients.
My awards include first, second, and third-place honors from the Virginia Press Association for work printed in the Cavalier Daily during my college years. My photographs have appeared in Newsweek, Time, Photographer’s Forum’s 1998 and 1999 editions of their book The Best of College Photography, and The Pinhole Journal, as well as in major U.S. newspapers, including the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Dallas Morning News, Washington Post, Detroit Free Press and USA Today. I have had four one-man shows, and my work has been exhibited in over a dozen group shows. My recent personal work has focused on travel portraiture and landscapes, a body of work I have pursued over the last eighteen years with trips across Europe, as well as to Canada, North Africa, Asia and South America.
I am fully experienced as both a film and digital photographer, and capable of expert completion of assignments using either medium. In addition to assignment photography, I also offer digital editing services (including RAW image-processing), color-correcting and image-enhancement, online-gallery viewing, and advanced digital retouching.
For more examples of my wedding, event and portrait work, please visit www.markstehlephoto.com