David Stephenson, an American who moved to Australia in 1982, has long
brought a minimalist approach to maximalist subjects, from the horizon,
to clouds, to Australia’s icepack. In the last decade he has used
his camera to register gloriously geometric patterns normally hidden from
the naked eye. Using long exposures, he has photographically brought the
sumptuously detailed cupolas in soaring European cathedrals, chapels,
and palaces - normally cast in deep shadow- back to brilliant life. (In
a separate but conceptually linked project) using even longer exposures,
he has caught otherworldly streaks of starlight in the night sky....his
stargazing through his camera is a variation on his theme of vibrant geometric
abstractions. By varying the intervals of his exposures, interrupting
or making multiple exposures, he has created his own music of the spheres.
(Margarett Loke, The New York Times, 2/11/2000) Stepehenson’s cupola
project has expanded to include over seventy-five sites in Europe, Russia
and Turkey.
Domes 1993-2003 [view images]
Stars 1995-1996 [view images]