Digital Output Magazine interviews SAW
Cool news, Digital Output Magazine profiles me as their feature article this month! Plus, they slapped my photograph on the cover. View the article, “Stephen Ausitn Welch | BOLD AND OFFBEAT” as a PDF on our site—or you can read it here on my blog, just below the image.
“COLOSSAL PRINTS”
Digital Output Magazine’s feature story on Stephen Austin Welch by Lorraine A. DarConte.
A bold use of color and informal, offbeat compositions sets San Francisco, CA-based advertising photographer Stephen Austin Welch apart from the rest.
Welch possesses an uncanny knack for making even the most mundane subjects— paper coffee cups, a sterile office cubicle, and an outdated shower stall—look exciting and new. Regarding his artwork, Welch explains, “I think you have to break at least one rule—whether it’s mixing light sources or using a slow shutter speed—to get a good photo.”
Welch also credits his film background for his unusual style, which allows everyone involved in a photo shoot to fully participate. “It’s about lighting spaces and then letting subjects create their own moment, action, beat, or story with an essay,” says Welch. “I think photographers often have it backwards and they try to pin everything down so precisely that they lose that freedom. I’m all about lighting a set so that the model, the band, or whomever I photograph has the freedom to let their personality show.”
Welch runs an almost completely digital studio, delivering clients’ images via FTP sites. However, he has plenty of occasions to print photos too. “I use Epson inkjet printers with Epson archival ink and archival matte paper,” states Welch. “When the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 first came out, I fell in love with it and purchased four more for the studio. My IT department figures the first printer generated more than ten miles of output. Subsequent devices each printed just as much volume.”
Welch’s studio uses the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 to provide several solutions including 12x12-inch portfolio prints, fine art photographic prints, calibrated proofs for clients, and archival C-prints on traditional photographic media. “We sell prints of all sizes—up to four feet, although I favor prints at 40 inches. Any of our fine art photographic prints sell through galleries or directly from our studio,” confides Welch.
Marketing materials for the studio are another application printed off of the Epson Stylus Pro 4000. “Unique items include art cards. These are limited edition archival photographic prints sent to clients, colleagues, fans, and friends. We created one every month for two years to make up a complete collector set of 24 pieces. It was nice to send archival prints as promotional mailers because they were a couple notches above the traditional consumer postcard.”
Pleased with the in-house inkjet prints his studio produces, Welch sends files to a trusted outside lab when tasked with giant mural prints for clients. There, profiled digital archival C-prints—color photographic prints created on negativetype color photographic paper—are created on Océ North America LightJet photo laser printers. “We created a mural over 50 feet long for a client. It was an installation in a wine bar that covered an interior wall. In this instance, we printed the image in strips, similar to wallpaper, on adhesive-backed material from 3M Graphics Market Center and then had it matte laminated. The impact was stunning,” says Welch. To view a sampling of Welch’s collections visit www.saw-art.com.
p.s. Oh, btw, here is the killer 50 foot wall mural we designed for a wine bar in San Francisco. The mural is referenced it the story, but the magazine did not run the photo of the finished installation, as shown here.
“COLOSSAL PRINTS”
Digital Output Magazine’s feature story on Stephen Austin Welch by Lorraine A. DarConte.
A bold use of color and informal, offbeat compositions sets San Francisco, CA-based advertising photographer Stephen Austin Welch apart from the rest.
Welch possesses an uncanny knack for making even the most mundane subjects— paper coffee cups, a sterile office cubicle, and an outdated shower stall—look exciting and new. Regarding his artwork, Welch explains, “I think you have to break at least one rule—whether it’s mixing light sources or using a slow shutter speed—to get a good photo.”
Welch also credits his film background for his unusual style, which allows everyone involved in a photo shoot to fully participate. “It’s about lighting spaces and then letting subjects create their own moment, action, beat, or story with an essay,” says Welch. “I think photographers often have it backwards and they try to pin everything down so precisely that they lose that freedom. I’m all about lighting a set so that the model, the band, or whomever I photograph has the freedom to let their personality show.”
Welch runs an almost completely digital studio, delivering clients’ images via FTP sites. However, he has plenty of occasions to print photos too. “I use Epson inkjet printers with Epson archival ink and archival matte paper,” states Welch. “When the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 first came out, I fell in love with it and purchased four more for the studio. My IT department figures the first printer generated more than ten miles of output. Subsequent devices each printed just as much volume.”
Welch’s studio uses the Epson Stylus Pro 4000 to provide several solutions including 12x12-inch portfolio prints, fine art photographic prints, calibrated proofs for clients, and archival C-prints on traditional photographic media. “We sell prints of all sizes—up to four feet, although I favor prints at 40 inches. Any of our fine art photographic prints sell through galleries or directly from our studio,” confides Welch.
Marketing materials for the studio are another application printed off of the Epson Stylus Pro 4000. “Unique items include art cards. These are limited edition archival photographic prints sent to clients, colleagues, fans, and friends. We created one every month for two years to make up a complete collector set of 24 pieces. It was nice to send archival prints as promotional mailers because they were a couple notches above the traditional consumer postcard.”
Pleased with the in-house inkjet prints his studio produces, Welch sends files to a trusted outside lab when tasked with giant mural prints for clients. There, profiled digital archival C-prints—color photographic prints created on negativetype color photographic paper—are created on Océ North America LightJet photo laser printers. “We created a mural over 50 feet long for a client. It was an installation in a wine bar that covered an interior wall. In this instance, we printed the image in strips, similar to wallpaper, on adhesive-backed material from 3M Graphics Market Center and then had it matte laminated. The impact was stunning,” says Welch. To view a sampling of Welch’s collections visit www.saw-art.com.
p.s. Oh, btw, here is the killer 50 foot wall mural we designed for a wine bar in San Francisco. The mural is referenced it the story, but the magazine did not run the photo of the finished installation, as shown here.
Labels: Digital Output Magazine, interview, magazine cover, SAW, swish
