Steve Nelson
Chairperson
Associate Professor

Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday
11:00-12:00 and by appointment

Area of Specialty

Photography

Biography

Steve Nelson received his BFA from
Western Michigan University in 1982 where he concentrated in photography.
In 1985, he received his MFA in Art Media Studies from Syracuse University.

Selected Gallery of Works

• Color Abbey Images
• Dissolution Images
• Endless Michigan Landscapes

I continue to work on a series of black and white photographs of Michigan landscapes taken with a handmade panoramic camera. These images are taken from different perspectives of particular vernacular sites. The blended views are a result of overlapping frames in the camera when I make the exposures at the various sites. The photographs are printed from the composites negatives, without darkroom or digital manipulation. I received a creative artist project grant from Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs to make a portfolio of 20 of these ‘Endless’ photographs. These photographs were exhibited at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the fall of 2002.

River Crossing at Duck Lake

Paradise-1

Felt Estate

Chapel Beach

Related to the Michigan landscape series is a group of images taken on the British Isles. Like the Michigan series these images explore the perception of change and the mutability of form in the landscape, but their viewpoint is singular. There I am drawn to architectural fragments and landforms that speak to the human and natural forces of change that has occurred over centuries. Captured in an atmosphere of dissolving light, the forms relate the past and present simultaneously. This series was exhibited in a two person show, “Aspect of Reality: Photography by Howard Bond and Steven Nelson” at the Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon Michigan, in January of 2004.

Fountain Abbey

Wye River Valley

Clearing Mist of Wye River

I have recently been working on a series of large format color photographs of abbey ruins in the British Isles. This project was initiated with funding through a faculty development grant from Hope College in 2002. I am interested in the persistent realism of color images that illuminates the contrast of architectural forms with temporal elements of organic growth and atmosphere. This work has not yet been exhibited.

Bolton Priory Reflections

Furness Gate

Furness Abbey

Furness Abbey II