12th Annual Palo Alto Weekly Photo Contest
First Place, Manipulated Images
"Lone Handballer, Venice"
By Steve Goldband
About Steve Goldband
"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
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