In our Challenging Cultural Times, Steve Bliss tells Stories of the Complex Relationship Art has to Nostalgia and Truth
Steve Bliss wasn't sure that he wanted to be a photographer, but a stint of logging in the west convinced him that he didn't want to be a logger. So, he followed the advice of his mentor, Richard Merritt, went back to school, studied photography and photographic history, and eventually landed teaching and administrative jobs.
He is serious about the value art (his art) can bring to a fractured society, yet he recognizes that elements of art can also be used to manipulate a culture-—think of the Nazi photographer Leni Riefenstahl. Bliss believes there is a truth that can be approached through photography, despite its proclivity to nostalgia-—capturing a romanticized or idealized feeling of the past-—and he appreciates the turn photography has taken toward awakening a sense beyond nostalgia.
Bliss is frank, funny, and unpretentiously intelligent in the stories he tells of his art and art in general. Join us for this enlivening discussion.
Photos courtesy of Steve Bliss
Steven Jay Bliss is an artist and photographic educator residing in Savannah, Georgia. His work is project-based, broad in scope and covers/includes a variety of media and subject matter. He credits Professor Richard Merritt for both helping him to identify his interest in photography and mentoring him as a student at the University of New Hampshire’s fine arts program. Receiving his M.F.A. from Ohio University in 1982, Steve’s early career included teaching positions at the Kansas City Art Institute, Southern Connecticut State, Hartwick College, and S.U.N.Y., Purchase, until he landed at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 1992. Steve has been making pictures for 50 years.
Steve has received a number of grants and awards: from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Georgia Council for the Arts, Polaroid Corporation, and the Southern Arts Federation. His photographs, digital images, and various works on paper are in the collections of museums and private collectors both nationally and internationally. Steve’s imagery has been published in several books including Workshop Stories: Changed Through Photography, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes and Introduction to Digital Photography. Recent online/hard copy magazine publication includes A-B (Aint Bad), C 41, and It’s Nice That.
After a thirty-year career of teaching and administering, Steve retired from SCAD and became in 2022 Professor Emeritus. During his time at SCAD, he served two four-year terms on the national board of the Society for Photographic Education and a four-year term on the executive board of the National Council of Arts Administrators.
Please also enjoy Steve’s Anatomy of a Photo podcasts:
Websites for the landscape photographers mentioned:
