Art Peritus Selects

Stephenson, David (American / Australian, b. 1960)

American born photographic and video artist David Stephenson currently lives in Hobart, Australia where he teaches photography at the University of Tasmania. Best known for capturing the vastness of architectural spaces and natural environments, Stephenson has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Himalayas, Artic and Antarctic in pursuit of his art.

Stephenson began to photograph cathedral ceilings in Spain and Portugal in 2003. Further interest in this subject led him to explore and photograph several hundred cathedrals in England, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and Russia. His dome series capture lofty cathedral ceilings- in particular, the oculus or eye at the center of each structure which is designed to lead the onlooker to the entry of the heavens. Whether photographing architecture or nature, Stephenson once explained, “my art has remained essentially spiritual… I have been exploring a contemporary expression of the sublime- a transcendental experience of awe with the vast space and time of existence.”

Stephenson’s dome series was published in two monographs “Heaven: The Dome in European Architecture” (2005) and “Heavenly Vaults: From Romanesque to Gothic in European Architecture” (2009) by Princeton Architectural Press, and in German editions by Prestel Verlag. His artwork is included in important museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris among many others.