About Steve Goldband

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"Beauty" and "construction sites" are rarely found in the same sentence, unless you are speaking with Steve Goldband.

"My work is actually landscape work in a way, but it's the man-made landscape," Goldband said.

The double award-winner is drawn to architectural patterns and the chance arrangement of things in nature.

On a trip to Venice Beach, Goldband looked beyond the rollerbladers, muscle-builders and beach loungers to a row of handball courts.

"I originally set it up as an architectural photo," Goldband said.

"As I was getting ready to take the picture this fellow got ready to take a break. It was really a picture of this fellow contemplating his environment."

To strengthen the minimalist effect, Goldband left the man's original color to draw in the viewer, flattened the rest into black and white and removed some "distracting details," he said.

Goldband, a New York native, grew up taking photographs for his high school yearbook and traveled to North Africa during college to take photographs.
A psychologist by training, Goldband moved to Palo Alto in 1989 and co-founded Smokeclinic.com, an online company that helps smokers quit smoking.

-- Grace Rauh