Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, artist Steve Farmer graduated with a BFA from NSCAD University in 1989, where he currently teaches both lighting and digital photography. Steve continues to pursue contemporary photography as an independent artist with an interest in capturing contrasting landscapes across Nova Scotia, from consumptive industrial sites to isolated islands and remote locations. Steve also runs his own business where he is regularly entrusted to photograph the work of some of the most prominent Canadian artists, both privately, and through the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the National Gallery of Canada.
Farmer’s photograph Contact (2016) reflects his keen interest in capturing the industrial activity of Nova Scotia’s working waterways. Cables, rail cars, containers and container piers, tugboats and grain silos have all inspired Farmer. His frame is usually tight, separating the subject from its surroundings, often abstracting it from all contexts including its own recognizable identity. He follows the lineage of abstract photographers such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Edward Weston, but his interest in Nova Scotia’s working-class waterfront allows a specific connection to place.
The Nova Scotia Spotlight series highlights recent acquisitions to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s Permanent Collection by artists contributing to the province’s cultural heritage. With support from Michelin North America (Canada) Inc. and the Donald R. Sobey Family Foundation in Memory of Robert W. M. Manuge.
