George Steeves: 1979 - 1993

Throughout his career, Steeves has worked with escalating intensity and unsparing self-incrimination. Deeply interested in the power of photography to express the most personal of emotions, he has mined the people and places around him, documenting their secrets, scandals, and dilemmas. Layered on their volunteered confessions are his own as partner, instigator, and voyeur. 

The exhibit, made up of six bodies of work, includes extended portraits of performance artist Ellen Pierce, dancers Angela and Duncan Holt, and writer Astrid Brunner—portraits done at the request of the subjects, involving a long-term collaboration with the photographer. It also includes personal explorations of Steeves himself, through self-portraits and photographs of the people and places around him.  

In her preface to the exhibition catalogue, former CMCP Director Martha Langford, the curator of the show, situates Steeves as an important, but little known, photographer. She writes that he has taken up the thorny issues of public and private expression, matters first addressed at the turn of the century and still unresolved.  
 

Organized and circulated by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Curated by Martha Langford, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ontario.