Steve MacGregor

The statement

I photograph what most people walk past: concrete, siding, pavement, water, the side of a building instead of the front. I’m not looking for spectacle. I’m usually noticing structure, tension, rhythm, the way something ordinary holds together when you remove the parts that explain it too quickly.

Most photographs identify their subject immediately. I tend to crop until that identification isn’t so automatic. I remove anchors, scale, orientation, context. What’s left can look abstract, but it isn’t manipulated. It’s the part that is usually ignored.

There’s no message buried in the frame and no instruction attached to it. I’m not trying to persuade anyone of anything. I’m interested in isolating what was already there and seeing how far it can stand on its own.

When it works, the image feels unfamiliar for a moment and then obvious. That’s what I look for.

Process

Each photograph I make is a single exposure. I do not stage, construct, or composite my images. Editing is minimal and deliberate. What you see is what the camera saw.

The short version

I’ve been photographing for most of my life. I built a darkroom at fourteen and never really stopped. Film became digital, the equipment changed, but the way I look at things didn’t.

I’m based in Denver, with many ties to New Zealand. I spend a lot of time walking around, paying attention to shadows, edges, corners; the parts of a scene most people don’t stop for. I never see a place the same way other people seem to see it. I tend to notice light and shadows first, tension second, and context last, if at all.

I don’t move things. I don’t build scenes. What’s there is always enough. Most of the work happens in deciding what to leave out.

What I end up with are photographs that demonstrate that difference in perception. They may look abstract, but they aren’t constructed. They’re just fragments of reality that feel unfamiliar when the usual anchors are gone.

I’ve been doing this so long I know to trust it.

Awards, exhibitions and press

The rest is in the CV, and at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.

Elsewhere

• CV, exhibitions and press
• Prints, sizes, prices, and how they are made
• Licensing
• Questions people ask, answered to a point
• steve@stevemacgregor.com