Telling America's Story

Stephen Gorman's work takes him to places most of us can only read about. On any given day he will be photographing polar bears in the Northwest Passage, retracing Lewis and Clark's route through Montana's rugged Missouri Breaks, traveling with Inuit hunters in the Canadian Arctic, or bringing back images from the World War II airfields and turquoise lagoons of Midway Atoll.

As a photographer Steve is acutely aware of the ephemeral nature of his subject matter, and his art reflects his awareness that he is a witness to the whirlwind change that is occurring all around us. As an American artist he is necessarily also a historian, and he mixes an emotive, lyrical style with a documentary sensibility.

As David Quammen writes, "Gorman's American Wilderness is not an imaginary place representing a flight from history but, on the contrary, a collection of vividly particular locales in which history itself adds to the meaning, the genius loci, and the charm."

Steve's photography benefits from his lifelong passion for his subject matter. He holds a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies from Yale University and a Bachelor's Degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University. An active participant in his areas of interest, Steve has worked as a cowboy on a ranch in Wyoming, as a member of survey crews in arctic Alaska and Nevada, and as an Outward Bound wilderness instructor throughout the United States and Canada.

His powerful connection to his subject matter results in the most evocative images. According to The Washington Times "the result is always the same: a masterful, some might even say seductive, introduction to his chosen destination."