Stephen Swintek

“The subject is the ocean… The desire is to capture a fleeting moment, that’s open to interpretation and reflection. Like a wispy daydream that lingers…

My images are more of an exploration than a statement. It’s deeply personal, but I can’t explain what I am looking for other than I want the images to feel more like a poem without words…

My lifelong passion for the ocean is no different than many others who have grown up on the water. It’s part of who I am, part of who we are. I can’t remember a time in my life where the ocean hasn’t been a part of it. Childhood memories, lifelong surfing experiences, working as a commercial fisherman, our seaside wedding, building sand castles with my daughters, spreading the ashes of loved ones, and many other forgotten moments. With these experiences in mind, I have set out to capture images that allow me to reflect on these past impressions. Some happy, some sad, and some having no connection to anything or anybody. Maybe it’s more about me and my memories, or maybe it’s just a fresh look at what I have seen all along?

As a long time commercial photographer specializing in advertising and conceptual photo-illustration, I am now evolving into the photographer I aspired to be as a young artist 35 years ago when all my imagery was personal in nature. As I loop back to the past, I have put my digital camera aside and returned to my photographic roots using only black and white film for all my personal projects, including this one. There’s something indelible and more finite about capturing images with traditional silver based film photography. In this vein, I use a vintage panoramic medium format view camera as well as several customized panoramic Holga toy cameras that give the images a classic style without the need for any digital manipulation or enhancement. Every step of the process from film development to printing and framing is done by me in my studio. It keeps things personal, and maybe even adds to the images unique qualities…