Stan Tess

© Randy Duchaine 2010

Stan was born in Hartford, Connecticut where he would soon be introduced to the world of photography through the pages of Life, Look and National Geographic that were always present on the coffee table at home. At a young age his photographic talents were recognized when he was first given a camera. His first assignments were to document family events, but this would not be the extent of Stan’s photographic pursuits.

Later Stan enjoyed the opportunity to live in Europe for several years and while there he took every occasion to see as much art as Europe had to offer. This would greatly expand his photo education. When he returned from Europe he rediscovered photography, after a lapse, in his twenties. This time the passion would lead him to New England Photo Works, Connecticut School of Fine Arts and Brooks Institute of Photography to continue his photo education.

To fine tune his skills he then moved to New York City to apprentice as an assistant with many of the finest commercial photographers of the time in fields as diverse as: architectural, beauty, catalog, corporate, editorial, fashion, food, illustration, industrial, portraiture and still life. In 1979 he would open a studio in the city to service clients in the editorial, advertising and corporate worlds. He would then move to Phoenix in 1984 and open a studio there to provide for clients in the southwest. Finally missing the greens and light of the East he moved back to Connecticut in the Fall of 2006 to where it all started. His website, stantess.com, was launched in the Spring of the following year. It was at this time that Stan made the switch from film to digital. Stan found that digital was what photography always should have been. Digital gave him the tools to fully express his creativity

Stan’s vision of photography has evolved and matured over the years, but he has been fascinated by the emotional qualities of light and color since childhood. This is what attracts him to a scene and what he attempts to articulate in his creative process. A process that involves distilling the various elements into a cohesive composition. Stan looks for that quintessential, elusive, fleeting moment when all the elements are arrayed in a strong graphic composition, when the quality of the light evokes a deep feeling, then he clicks the shutter and starts the search for the next image to capture.