-------- The heart and the mind are the true lenses of the camera. ~ Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) --------
-------- Stephen! Put that camera away and do your homework! ~ Edith Thorne (1914-2008) --------
Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
~ W. Eugene Smith, Father of the Photoessay (1918-1978)
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Express yourself. ~ Charles Wright (1940-) ***********************
Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures. ~ Don McCullin (1935-)
If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it's already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer. ~ Eve Arnold (1912-)
Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand. ~ Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)
I get on well with ordinary people. We talk. We start with the weather, and little by little we get to the important things. When I photograph them it is not as if I were examining them with a magnifying glass, like a cold and scientific observer. It's very brotherly. And it's better, isn't it, to shed some light on those people who are never in the limelight? ~ Robert Doisneau (1912-1994)
What do I want to capture most in my photographs? Human emotion and the essence of human being. I am less interested in forcing my subjects into a visually interesting form or putting them against an unusual background. ~ Philippe Halsman (1906-1979)
That's me -- a journalist of 29 years seeking art and tenderness in pictures for a change. After 20 years covering disasters and war, I want to contribute to the beauty of life. I hope to link with creative models who like my work and believe they can benefit from it, while bringing something new and fresh to my portfolio.
You become things, you become an atmosphere, and if you become it, which means you incorporate it within you, you can also give it back. You can put this feeling into a picture. A painter can do it. And a musician can do it and I think a photographer can do that too, and that I would call dreaming with open eyes. ~ Ernst Haas (1921-1986)
First and foremost, I do this because I love pictures and have loved them passionately for 40 years. To the degree that it is practically possible, the art will always come before all else with me. I am happy to help select models build their portfolios and achieve their goals but, as a rule, I do not do basic portfolio work. That said, I am always open to collaborating with creative, resourceful, enthusiastic and open-minded people.
If I want to do nudes with you, I will explore that option with you before the shoot. While nudes are not a prerequisite to working with me, I do prefer versatility and flexibility in a model. I do not pay models unless I am being paid by a third party, in which case the model will be informed, permissions obtained and fair compensation negotiated. I require models to credit anything used online or elsewhere. As a rule, I do not distribute print-sized jpegs.
Note: I will not tolerate pretentious people and I have no time for divas. So leave the attitude at the door and let's make art!
If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. ~ Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989)
I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats. It was the girls I liked. ~ David Bailey (1938-)
I am all about the light. But the
limelight always belongs to the models. I share in an Ottawa studio and I am equally comfortable working with natural or artificial light. My ideal shoot affords the opportunity to work with both, which can mean early mornings and long hours -- but inevitably lots of adventure, nice art and
fun, fun, fun! And while I love softness, romance and elegance, I am always looking to add a little thoughtful edginess and social commentary to my work. I encourage and appreciate ideas, suggestions and critiques.
Bring it on, girls!
The model has to give you the moment. It's not you making it. They give it to you and you capture it. ~ Peter Lindberg (1944- )
What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm -- the relationship between shapes and values. ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)
I am principally a journalist, photojournalist and documentarian of the human condition. I do this stuff out of a lifelong love for photography, a profound appreciation of the 'feminine mystique' and a quest for personal and artistic growth. This is a welcome and decided change from what I have done for most of my career. I want to develop as a photographer and a person, and to express my vision and ambition to find beauty, serenity and peace in this lifetime. I enjoy meeting new people and I deeply appreciate the female sensibility. This adventure in pursuit of beautiful images, a clear vision and refined technical skills is a balm to the sores wrought by tragedy, war, torment and heartbreak. It soothes and feeds the soul.
And that, my friends, is what it's all about.
What is right? Simply put, it is any assignment in which the photographer has a significant spiritual stake. . . spiritually driven work constitutes the core of a photographer's contribution to culture. ~ William Albert Allard (1937-)
I realize more and more what it takes to be a really good photographer. You go in over your head, not just up to your neck. ~ Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
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About the images: The wartime and buzkashi (BOO-skeh-shee) pictures were shot for Canada's national wire service during three writing, broadcast and photographic assignments to Afghanistan totaling a year in-country; the Wailing Wall and the Palestinian boy with the toy gun are in Jerusalem; the cowboy shots are part of a project I'm doing in southwestern Alberta; the double rainbow and the buck were photographed near Longview, Alberta. Art and fashion were shot in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, London, Detroit and Cleveland.
**Seven-time winner of Model Mayhem's 18+ Pic o' the Day (click on medallions to see the images)**
My newly redesigned website –
thornefoto.com - is up and running! Please drop in and have a look at the expanded portfolios, now including samples of my work in fashion, beauty and art nudes as well as updated and refined portfolios on Afghanistan, the world of bikes and bikers and the Canadian West. There are new sections including my latest tearsheets and links to some of my favourite photographers such as James Nachtwey, Sebastaio Salgado, Patrick Demarchelier and many more. The site is updated on a semi-regular basis, so keep coming back to check out what’s new! This newest, completely redesigned version of thornefoto.com was built by
Joanna Jakubiec and
Orchis Design.
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Profile article & portfolio essay in December-January issue of Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine
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Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War, featuring work by writer/photographer Stephen J. Thorne and video by filmmaker Garth Pritchard, has begun a three-year, cross-country tour at
The Rooms in St. John's, Nfld. It's running Jan. 15-June 7, 2009, after a record-setting stint at the
Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, where it drew almost 190,000 visitors in 14 months. It will open in Toronto,
Calgary and
Victoria between now and 2011 and possibly beyond. Other venues are under consideration. The original, cutting-edge show exceeded all predictions, drawing 189,853 visitors between February 2007 and April 2008. Attendance surpassed the show’s one-year projection after only seven months. Throughout its inaugural run,
Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War was the No. 1 draw in the entire
Canadian Museum of Civilization Corp. and outdrew all shows in all national museums. Due to its overwhelming success, the original exhibition was extended four months. You may view the online exhibition
here.
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The strong desire to take pictures is important. It borders on a need, based on a habit: the habit of seeing. Whether working or not, photographers are looking, seeing, and thinking about what they see, a habit that is both a pleasure and a problem, for we seldom capture in a single photograph the full expression of what we see and feel. It is the hope that we might express ourselves fully -- and the evidence that other photographers have done so -- that keep us taking pictures. ~ Sam Abell (1945-)
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A broader cross-section of my photographic work can be seen at my website,
thornefoto.com.
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I don’t believe you can see what’s beyond the edge unless you put your head over it; I’ve many times been right up to the precipice, not even a foot or an inch away. That’s the only place to be if you’re going to see and show what suffering really means. ~ Don McCullin
You can help kids like these at the
UNICEF Afghanistan website. You
can save a life. They need your help.
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A summary of my journalistic and photographic resume:
• 40 years as a photographer; 30 years an editor, lecturer and award-winning reporter.
• Only reporter with 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, throughout their March 2002 assault on the Whale's Back in eastern Afghanistan, Canada's first wartime assault in 50 years. Reported from the frontlines on numerous combat operations during a year in Afghanistan and six weeks in Kosovo, in 1999.
• Covered combat operations with all Canadian regiments, combat engineers and armoured units as well as the U.S. Special Forces, 82nd Airborne, 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions.
• Three National Newspaper Awards; 2002 Ross Munro Media Award for defence reporting; four RTNDA national radio awards and many other national journalism awards; two time Grand Prize winner for Best in Show, Western Photo Gallery, Calgary Stampede Art Show and Sale.
• Editor of
The CWCA Newsletter, the Canadian War Correspondents Association journal -- soon to be online.
• Multiple appearances on CBC-TV, CBC Newsworld, CBC Radio, CTV, CTV NewsNet, Global TV, CPAC, Fox Television, AP Radio, ABC Radio, WarNews Radio, U.S. National Public Radio, as well as private and syndicated radio across Canada and the United States.
• Pictures in
Time, Maclean's (including one cover),
Weekly World News, Legion Magazine, International Journal (two covers),
Action Press Annual, Stars & Stripes, Army News, Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine, and daily newspapers worldwide.
• Two photographic exhibitions of
The Vanishing Cowboy in Ottawa in 2005-06.
• Juried exhibitor, Western Photo Gallery, 2006 & 2007 Calgary Stampede Art Show and Sale.
• Exhibition through April 28, 2008, at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on Afghanistan -- a journalist's stories, pictures and artifacts, along with video from documentary filmmaker Garth Pritchard.
• Other exhibitions of various works are still in the planning stages and will be announced as details are confirmed. See
Exhibitions and
News (above).
• Cover profile and portfolio photoessay in December-January 2008 edition of
Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine, Stephen Thorne: Reflecting the Dignity of Spirit.
Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold. ~ Gene Smith
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The trouble with photographing beautiful women is that you never get into the dark room until after they've gone. ~ Yousuf Karsh
There are two kinds of photographers: those who compose pictures and those who take them. The former work in studios. For the latter, the studio is the world. . . . For them, the ordinary doesn't exist: every thing in life is a source of nourishment. ~ Ernst Haas
Copyright (C) 2002-2009 Stephen J. Thorne
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All images on Model Mayhem pages 277819 and 581606 will remain
COPYRIGHT STEPHEN J. THORNE and may not be used or reproduced in any way without written permission of STEPHEN J. THORNE.
All of the photographs contained within these web pages are provided strictly for your viewing purposes, exclusive to these web pages. None of the photographs contained within these web pages may be reproduced, copied, transmitted, altered or projected in any way alone, or with other images, by use of computer or other electronic means, without a prior written and signed licensing contract between you and STEPHEN J. THORNE.
Among the models I photograph for the fashion magazines, I recognize immediately the ones that have studied dance. They know how to carry their heads, they have a certain way of sitting and a natural elegance that the mastery of their bodies has shaped forever. ~ Jeanloup Sieff (1933-2000)
In the United States, violating copyright law is punishable by fines of up to $100,000.00 US, plus all associated court & attorneys' fees.
In Canada, the Copyright Act prohibits any person from knowingly selling, distributing or exhibiting in public (ie. online) any infringing copy of any copyrighted work. Violators are liable on summary conviction to fines of up to $25,000 Cdn, as much as six-months’ imprisonment, or both. On conviction on indictment, violators may be fined up to $1 million Cdn, receive as much as five-years’ imprisonment, or both. In addition to criminal proceedings, violators of Canadian copyright law are subject to civil proceedings through which monetary penalties can be assessed at the judge's discretion.
I am generous with my jpegs.
Don't abuse it. These laws apply internationally.
Yes'm, it's been a long, winding road from there. . . . to here. I shake my head at the wonder of it all.
Four wheels move the body; two wheels move the soul, baby. . . . And those two wheels are mine.
And I to my motorcycle
Parked like the soul of the junkyard
Restored, a bicycle fleshed
With power, and tore off
Up Highway 106 continually
Drunk on the wind in my mouth
Wringing the handlebar for speed
Wild to be wreckage forever
~ James Dickey, Cherrylog Road
I'd rather be busted into the wind like a meteorite than just become dust. God made us to live, not just exist. ~ Evel Knievel
Don't fence me in ~ Robert Fletcher and Cole Porter
Check out Stephen Thorne Photographic (STP) Arts. And, please note, I do my best to respond to all picture comments and tags but sometimes I get behind and occasionally am unable to respond to all. I do appreciate each and every one, and sincerely thank you for stopping by.
