Steve Gallagher is a Sussex-based photographer, originally from the American Midwest where he graduated with a Fine Arts degree in Visual Design and Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Initially working in fashion photography in Chicago, Miami and New York, he then built a successful career in advertising and digital design before moving to the UK in 2002.
Living in a house next to the sea on Britain’s south coast, his love of photography was reignited by the beauty of the Sussex Downs and the ever-changing nature of the local shoreline and the sea. Moving into a house surrounded by nature, with an artist’s studio already built in the garden, his photographic focus on seascapes and floral portraits was almost inevitable. The confinement of the Covid pandemic imposed a time and space to distil his art. The limit on travel meant that his subject matter was stripped to a minimum, allowing Steve to focus on refining and redefining his practice incessantly over this period to produce the intricate and skilfully composed photographs that feature as part of the Interrupted Art scheme.
Steve’s compositions are soothingly simple, but he brings out detail, drama and richness in large format pictures to arresting effect. Having transitioned from people to nature as core subjects over his photographic career, the viewer can recognise the inspiration from Irving Penn, Nick Knight and JMW Turner in his current work – all people Steve cites as people who have influenced his artistic direction.
Steve’s series are deliberately low in edition, with unique pieces being introduced for Interrupted Art members. He has exhibited at the Talented Art Fair (June 2022), The Other Art Fair in London (Spring 2022), the Artists’ Open Houses trail in Brighton and at the Sussex Art Fair in Chichester (May 2022).
