About the Artist

Stewart D. Halperin

“What a joy it is to do for your livelihood what you also do for your passion. Photography is that for me” - Stewart Halperin

For over 45 years St. Louis-based photographer Stewart D. Halperin has traveled the world with his cameras. His work has taken him to over 90 countries spanning six continents. The roots of his passion for his work and traveling can be traced to the rainforests of Africa. It was there in Tanzania as a young graduate student with Dr. Jane Goodall, and in the mountainous regions of Rwanda with the late Dr. Diane Fossey, that Stewart learned to look through his cameras lens.

“It was in Africa, studying and watching the chimps and gorillas, that I learned to truly see – watching their behavior unfold, watching the slow rhythm of the forests, watching the cycles of light over the course of each day and each month. I had the luxury of time – the most important ingredient in doing good photography – time to watch the subject and to combine elements of movement, color, light and meaning all in the instant when the shutter is pushed.” - Stewart Halperin

The next and probably more formative influence on Stewart’s work was his friendship and collaboration with photography legend Ernst Haas. “Ernst seared my eye, heart and soul with color. He showed me you don't have to be technical in your approach to work – be fluid, take a chance with your colors, be bold in moving beyond reality and into abstraction. Don’t just use your images to document, but to ask questions. Some will give answers, other will  just raise more questions. His words still echo in my mind each time I push the shutter. Photographers are painters in a hurry, but though we create that image in an instant we still have the same obligation to attend to every element of the frames canvas.”

For three decades, Stewart’s work has taken him to some of the most remote corners of the globe, as well as many of the world's major cities. More recently, Stewart’s work has concentrated on producing a collection of fine art photographic prints. The prints come from both his extensive files of over 120,000 color transparencies and his more recently captured digital library. His current schedule is as global as ever, with regular trips to Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

"There's a fluidity in the photos of Stewart Halperin that's akin to the surface tension you see when water has ever-so-slightly overfilled a drinking glass: they seem about to pour forth out of their own skins. And what they threaten to let loose more than anything else is color. Rich, bold, earthy color." - The Red Bank Orbit