"I need you to get some wild art"

Ruminating on a career in newsphotography

[lewisfoto]

Mr. Lewis, are you the same Steven Lewis who was a photographer for the Naples, Florida Daily News in 1995? I am trying to track down the photographer from an image that ran in the November 14, 1995 Naples Daily News. I am an artist in Pasadena, CA, my name is Deborah Aschheim.

Remarkable as it may seem I am the Steven Lewis form the Naples Daily News

[lewisfoto]

I took this photo during my college years in San Francisco. The location is Dolores park in the Mission. The chap in the picture is a stranger but he played it up a bit for the camera.

[lewisfoto]

Tourists in front of Bank of America branch at the corner of Grant and Sacramento, San Francisco circa 1990/

[lewisfoto]

Northridge Meadows apartment complex January 17, 1994. The initial shock of the quake threw me out of bed 45 miles away in Ventura. I got up and saw a daisy chain of electrical transformers exploding. When I got to Northridge Meadows I thought at first that it was a two story building with minor damage, it was only after I got out of the car that i realized it used to be a three story building. The guy at the door above asked me when the firefighters were going to evacuate him.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

This is one of two times during my career that I honestly could have died. The college student with the bat was trying to hit the pinata behind him when he suddenly turned my direction. The photo was a fraction of a second before he swung narrowly missing my head. The gal in the background is screamint at him to stop.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

I have been rather inactive lately but plan to be back at it…

[lewisfoto]

Claremont Mudd Scripps football team celebrates after defeating cross campus rival Pomona Pitzer in 2010.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

Illustration for a business story on a plastic fastener company. One of the rewarding parts of a newspaper job is the diverse range of assignments. Well sometimes the diversity is rewarding other times it is frustrating.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

Damsel being chased by an evil bird creature, is actually a scene from Redlands Shakespeare Festival production of Romeo e Juliet.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

Worker at a traveling tent revival in 1986, original caption: Everything man Buddy Ward paints the wheels on one of the semi trucks that keep the tent revival rolling. The everything men work long hard days for Schambach, Ward has just finished one truck but has four to go.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

This is the camera that made many of the early black and white photos seen here. It’s a little worn.

[lewisfoto]

Since I have been posting so many pictures of San Francisco, here I am, circa 1990, with the camera that made most of those images. It is a Kodak Retina IIIC, folding 35mm rangefinder from the 1950s. The camera was purchased by new by my father and he gave it to me when I started getting interested in photography.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

This photo echoes this blog’s theme: cruising for wild art. For the uninitiated, cruising, also known as feature hunting or some similar moniker, refers to driving around town looking for a stand alone feature photo that will run in the paper with caption only. This is a classic example although, because it was a nuclear rally, there may have been a reporter there as well. Original caption below.

Michael Terrill leans on the legs of his mom Linda Terrill as they listen to a speech on Saturday during the Nuclear Free Day at Memorial Park.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

A really poor photo that I am posting only because it shows someone famous, beat poet Gregory Corso, second from left. He was drinking wine, circa 1989, with European tourists at one of my favorite San Francisco restaurants Cafe Trieste. The guy on the left gave me $5 to send this picture to him, which I never did, so hopefully through the miracle of the Internet this post will find him.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

San Francisco farmers Market in the rain circa 1988. I had an old Yashicamat medium format camera that I hauled around for a while which made for some different perspectives from 35mm. I love this picture despite of its flaws, reticulated grain and slight motion blur. To me it looks even older than the 1980s.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

I find this picture to have an antique quality along the lines of a Renaissance still life. In truth it is a collection of items on my mother’s kitchen window sill.

©Steven Lewis

[lewisfoto]

Here I am in Florida when I worked at the Naples Daily News in the mid ‘90s. I don't remember this fire but I love this pic of me on the job. Always loved my prime lenses as well.

©Steven Lewis