Biography

Chris was born and raised in the Edmonton area and was interested in photography from an early age, taking photos on family vacations and in high school. In his youth, he enrolled in many basic photography classes.

He received his first formal training at NAIT earning his diploma in Photographic Technology in 1989, and continuing his education throughout his career by an active involvement in the Alberta Professional Photographers Association and the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC). Through these organizations, Chris has been able to study with many influential photographers.

Chris has been accredited with PPOC in five specialties: General Portrait, Wedding Formal, Wedding Story, Couples, and Figure Study. He has also achieved the degree Craftsman Of Photographic Arts and will receive the coveted Master Of Photographic Arts degree in 2000.

As the co-owner and photographer, of Stambaugh Photographics Inc., along with his wife Darlene, Chris has become one of Edmonton’s prominent portraitists in his eleven year career.

Artist’s Statement

The project "FORMS" began in September of 1998 from a desire to create a cohesive body of work. I wanted to challenge myself and came up with the concept of creating a series of images in the same style, but using different themes. The result was 32 images of 9 models with the following themes: nude with no props, pregnant nude, nude with flowers, nude with steel, nude with white fabric, nude with fans, two nudes, and nude with frame & pillar.

The most beautiful subject to photograph, for me, is a person. And the nude human body is the most basic and beautiful form of the subject. All the images are constructs of my own imagination, however, when working with such a classic subject matter there are bound to be similarities to other works and a few times I was surprised to find some very specific influences in my own work.

The title "FORMS" comes from, of course, a basic design element. While creating the prints, I always analyze my photographs in terms of line, shape, texture, color and so on. When working with these photographs, I found myself using the word “form” much more often than usual and it struck me that "form" was quite dominant. The title stuck.

I plan to continue this work, and have already created more images in the same style. My goal is to continue to exhibit and to perhaps one day publish a book.

Technical Notes: The images were created using Kodak TCN 400 ISO film with a Hasselblad camera. They are archivally printed on Kodak C paper (fibre based) and are sepia toned.

Special thanks to Kodak Canada inc. for their sponsorship of this project and their ongoing support of my career.

www.stambaugh-photo.com