Artist Statement | Artist Biography | Zmak Creative Fact Sheet

What does quiet look like? Over the last two and a half years, I’ve tried to capture the answer to that question. To me, quiet is a stillness found only in the natural world. It is being alone on an isolated beach in Big Sur all night long, with only the surf washing in and out and occasionally exploding on a boulder. It is standing on a vast expanse of desert with only localized gusts of wind dancing in and out of coarse brush. It is watching light flow down an overgrown set of stairs to the trickle of a nearby brook. It is the constant flow of a spring spilling over a small stone in its path. It is the naked wintery vines of a vineyard pleading for the return of the sun’s warmth. It is a little boy at the water’s edge mesmerized by the tide flowing in and out over his feet. It is a buffalo grazing at dusk to absolute silence.

What does quiet sound like? It is the orchestral song of spinning stars, the howling of the lonely moon arcing across the sky, the footsteps of water marathoning over the earth. It is the sound of time passing on a scale too vast for us to comprehend.

What does quiet feel like? What I want my heaven to be when I step from this life to the next.

For me, the challenge is always the same—visually portraying a deep spiritual experience between me and my sense of paradise. I want to show that a waterfall only inches high is as grand and spectacular as one hundreds of feet high. I want to provide a glimpse of a rock’s soul as it’s caressed by an icy stream, never the same way twice. I want backgrounds that stretch for infinity through space-time. There are moments when I swear the trees are dancing just for me, posing and hamming it up before a cheering audience of one shouting for endless encores. So surreal is my vision, I’m only capable of capturing a flicker as it teasingly whispers its secrets to me through riddles of quantum physics. I like to think I’m staring into the face of God and can almost, almost perceive it. Then it’s lost like a message in a dream seconds after I awake.

But I try my best to share it all with you—my questions, my theories, my philosophy, my quest for metaphysical answers—the best way I know how, through black & white photography.

My vision and technique as I’ve shown them to you through these 31 photographs are most influenced and inspired by the teachings and work of photographers David Gubernick, Wil Giles, Richard Garrod, Don Anderson, Al Weber, Jane Olin, Martha Casanave, Patrick Jablonski, Cynthia D’Vincent, and The ImageMakers; watercolor painters Sally Smith and Marilyn Van den Bogaerde; philosophers and guides Greg Zmak, Robert Alexander and Greg Pool; and the genius of my wife, Tina.

I am a Lorax. Are you one, too?

Steve Zmak captures the essence of California through black & white photography that speaks to the soul.

A native Californian, Zmak’s love of the outdoors inspired him to begin capturing the awesome beauty of the Golden State on film. Today, he continues to find inspiration in California’s wild places. Traversing beaches, deserts, mountains and valleys, Zmak takes viewers on a journey through some of California’s most breathtaking scenes. Images of rugged coastal bluffs, sun-drenched valleys and rushing mountain streams engage the senses and the spirit. One can almost taste the Pacific Ocean’s salty spray, feel the sunlight’s warmth or smell the crisp scent of Monterey pines emanating from his images.

Zmak’s photographs capture an ideal of California, pristine and untouched by encroaching development. From a lone surfer on a desolate beach to a sunrise breaking through oak trees, his pictures invite viewers to revel in the moment and make it their own.

In addition to preserving California’s natural beauty on film, Zmak works to protect the environment through his contributions to environmental causes. He donates 10 percent of the proceeds from every photography sale to nonprofits working for the environment.

In September 2005 Zmak released his third portfolio of fine art photography, “Black & White Whispers.” This portfolio explores the questions, “What does quite look like, sound like and feel like?” It includes 31 photographs from California and Montana. The photographs illustrate the stillness of the natural world — from an isolated moonlit beach to a star-streaked desert sky to a little boy mesmerized by the tide’s ebb and flow.

In March 2003 Zmak released the “California Black & White” portfolio, featuring 23 black & white photographs from the Russian River Valley to Malibu, including 17 from Monterey County. The portfolio showcases California’s dramatic landscapes and surreal beauty, including a lightning storm striking the Monterey Peninsula, a silken stream rushing beneath fallen trees in the Ventana wilderness, and sweeping vistas of the Big Sur coast.

Zmak published his first portfolio, “The Lonely Coast,” in 2000. He shot “The Lonely Coast” along the wintery landscape of the Central California Coast. The portfolio features 23 black & white photographs spanning from Zmudowski State Beach and the rugged Big Sur coastline in Monterey County to the rocky shores of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.

Zmak’s photographs have been displayed in exhibitions throughout Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Santa Clara counties. In August 2005, Zmak was a featured artist at the Walter Lee Avery Art Gallery in Seaside, Calif. “La Purisima Another Light” (The Lonely Coast) and “Pinnacles Winter Vineyard” (California Black & White), respectively, were selected for the National Steinbeck Center’s juried exhibitions,“My California: Views from the Golden State” (2005) and “Images of California Agriculture” (2004). “Limekiln Silk” (California Black & White) was selected for the Monterey Museum of Art’s Juried All-Media Exhibition in 2003. In addition, six photographs from Zmak’s series, “The Pajaro River Watershed Experience,” were selected for the “Rumme: Living River” exhibition in 2004.

Zmak uses 35mm black & white film, which he scans and makes digital. He performs his darkroom work digitally, using the traditional techniques of dodging, burning, masking, tonal adjustments and spotting. Nothing in the compositions is removed or distorted, nor have any elements been added. Zmak believes that photography is as much about accurate documentation as artistic expression. The final prints are output from the highest quality Epson printers using only the finest Epson archival media.

Photographs from Zmak’s third portfolio are available as numbered, open edition prints. Photographs from his first two portfolios and the “The Pajaro River Watershed Experience” series are available as numbered, limited edition prints. Selected photographs are available as open edition lithograph reproductions and notecards. Zmak’s entire photography collection may be viewed at SteveZmak.com.

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