David Stewart (photographer)
Encyclopedia
David Stewart photographer and director, working in advertising
and fine art photography
. He is noted for his surreal and often humorous large format
portraits.
Stewart began his career photographing tourists on morecambe promenade and punk bands, including The Clash
and The Ramones, as they performed at local venues. Ater studying photography at ]] and The Fylde College, Stewart moved to, assisting for three years before setting up his own studio. He has since become one of Londons most sought-after photographers splitting his time been working on personal projects and advertising commissions.
His first collection, Cabbage
, a surrealistic tribute to the much-maligned vegetable, was accompanied by a short film that was nominated for a BAFTA in 1995. Fogeys, published in 2001, comprised "kitsch, cartoon-like photographs of people growing old disgracefully," whether zooming downhill on a go-kart or lounging in a coffin-shaped paddling pool. Fogeys also won a silver award at the Art Directors Club of New York.
Stewart's work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Photographic Portrait Prize several times, with his 2007 entry, "Alice & Fish," featuring his 14-year-old daughter, shortlisted for the overall prize.
In 2009 Stewart's latest book, Thrice Removed, was published by Browns Editions. In an interview with Creative Review at the launch event Browns Nick Jones explained Stewart's motivation for the project. “David came to us with the idea for a book on relationships, not just familial but also those tenuous ones we have with people we have met through someone else or those people who are interconnected through one person, in this case, David Stewart. Some of the images also comment on our relationships with societies or groups.” The launch itself was also somewhat unorthodox as Creative Review reported "Four images were represented by a Clydesdale horse called Buster, five disaffected teenage girls, who not only recreated the shot from the book, but also helped sell copies of the book on the night, two lumberjacks who performed wood chopping skills, and a chip van which provided food for the evening.
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
and fine art photography
Fine art photography
Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to...
. He is noted for his surreal and often humorous large format
Large format
Large format refers to any imaging format of 4×5 inches or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6×6 cm or 6×9 cm size of Hasselblad, Rollei, Kowa, Pentax etc cameras , and much larger than the 24×36 mm frame of 35 mm format.The main advantage...
portraits.
Stewart began his career photographing tourists on morecambe promenade and punk bands, including The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
and The Ramones, as they performed at local venues. Ater studying photography at ]] and The Fylde College, Stewart moved to, assisting for three years before setting up his own studio. He has since become one of Londons most sought-after photographers splitting his time been working on personal projects and advertising commissions.
His first collection, Cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...
, a surrealistic tribute to the much-maligned vegetable, was accompanied by a short film that was nominated for a BAFTA in 1995. Fogeys, published in 2001, comprised "kitsch, cartoon-like photographs of people growing old disgracefully," whether zooming downhill on a go-kart or lounging in a coffin-shaped paddling pool. Fogeys also won a silver award at the Art Directors Club of New York.
Stewart's work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Photographic Portrait Prize several times, with his 2007 entry, "Alice & Fish," featuring his 14-year-old daughter, shortlisted for the overall prize.
In 2009 Stewart's latest book, Thrice Removed, was published by Browns Editions. In an interview with Creative Review at the launch event Browns Nick Jones explained Stewart's motivation for the project. “David came to us with the idea for a book on relationships, not just familial but also those tenuous ones we have with people we have met through someone else or those people who are interconnected through one person, in this case, David Stewart. Some of the images also comment on our relationships with societies or groups.” The launch itself was also somewhat unorthodox as Creative Review reported "Four images were represented by a Clydesdale horse called Buster, five disaffected teenage girls, who not only recreated the shot from the book, but also helped sell copies of the book on the night, two lumberjacks who performed wood chopping skills, and a chip van which provided food for the evening.