MTC ART GALLERY

The MTC community art program presents:

INTERCONNECTION

Panoramic montages by
Steve Bird

Steve, a San Francisco resident, received his Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in Photography from San Francisco State University in 2003. He followed that up with a Master of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Photography in 2006, receiving a Distinguished Achievement Award for Academic Excellence.

Steve has been a lecturer in Photography in SFSU’s Art Department since 2007. From 2003 to 2006, he was a graduate and teaching assistant in SFSU’s Art Department. Before heading off to university, he was the proprietor and photographer of Rapidlab Photographic Services.

Artist's Statement

I originally started piecing photographs together simply because I wanted to photograph more than what would fit in a single frame. I didn’t realize that this technique dates back to the very roots of photography; indeed, the desire to create a panoramic view partially drove the invention of photography. I gradually came to realize that there was a certain honesty about this method, that I could perhaps show people a particular point of view, a certain place at a certain time, without leaving anything out. A single photograph is a little slice of time and space, a single glimpse carefully framed that depicts a limited truth. Yet when we view a scene, there is no frame. While we don’t see everything before us simultaneously, our brain assembles a series of images captured by the eye into a unified whole. I strive to create photographs that mimic the way we actually see rather than showing the viewer a single glimpse. I want to show as much of what I saw as possible, and to minimize my role as editor of what is seen, reducing the photograph to that essential question of point of view. As photographers are inclined to say, it’s all about where you stand.
—Steve Bird