Self portrait diptych, 1969
I am an established Canadian portrait photographer. My first photos were taken in 1968 with my father’s Rolleiflex. Over fifty five years later, in a career spanning 35 years, I have photographed portraits of people from all walks of life and in many parts of the world.
For 20 years, I operated a successful commercial portrait studio in Toronto.
My work is known for its authenticity, originality and sensitivity. I still shoot some of my portraits on film and hand-print archivally in a traditional wet darkroom.
The acclaimed portrait exhibition, This Is My Body, focused on women's body image. It was cited by the late art critic for The Toronto Star Peter Goddard as "one of the most truly important and mesmerizing photographic projects to come out of this city in the past five years or more."
The exhibition, “Hotel Tropicoco and the Cuban Revolution," focused on the idiosyncrasies of present-day life in Cuba, as seen from the interior of a old Russian-era resort on the eastern shores of Havana. Another solo exhibition, Travelogue, showcased poignant photographs I took in Japan in 2018.
In 2019, the book Stephen Stober: Photographs, 1969-2019 was published, celebrating 50 years in photography and acquired by several major libraries across Canada for their permanent collections.
In April of 2020, a month into the global pandemic, I initiated a project of Porch Portraits, one of the first of its kind in Canada.
Throughout 2021, I initiated a series of 52 self portraits, one a week for the entire year.
I am also pleased to have some of my work represented in the Portrait Gallery of Canada’s premier exhibition online, “Personae”.
(Bold links in bio open external pages)