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Student Spotlight
Photography is about ‘freedom’
MHCC student photographer Stephen Lenhart
applies his classroom lessons to freelancing work
The Advocate
Getting his start in high school with a camera his grandfather passed down to him, MHCC student photographer Stephen Lenhart, is weeks away from graduation.
Lenhart got his first camera from his grandfather when he was 16 or 17 years old and it was from then on that he started collecting cameras at garage sales and trying to make a career out of his photography. Now 39, he owns four or five 35mm cameras.
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“I like to draw, too, but that doesn’t come natural,” Lenhart said. “Photography uses my composition skills to show how I see things. It’s the freedom of it (I like).”
Lenhart spent his post-high school years working on various photography jobs, specializing in darkroom lab work. With the digital age fast approaching and darkrooms going by the wayside, Lenhart decided to go back to school.
“I wanted to try being behind the camera,” Lenhart said. “With digital, you can be a part of all of it.”
Lenhart is in his last year in MHCC’s two-year Integrated Media: Digital Photography program and said it gives the students a real-world collaborative perspective on their projects because the four Integrated Media programs work on projects together.
Graphic design instructor Christina Maier said Lenhart was rather shy but very serious and intense during the application process to the program.
“We have a really powerful group of teachers here,” Lenhart said. “Through them, we have been able to network and meet other photographers out of school,”
Coming out of the program, Lenhart said the students are set apart from other photographers because they have learned about creating a matching style with business cards, mailers, websites and photography.
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“The business side of things is sometimes more important than the photography,” Lenhart said. “In the program I have learned a good balance of the two.”
He said the look has to be consistent, and he learned to streamline everything making sure the look matches the style of his photography.
Part of that streamlining was the creation of his website about two months ago. He said he is still working on it, but the style of his website matches his business cards and mailing flyers.
“You have to think about every small detail.” He said. “It’s being able to tell a story with images.”
While going to school Lenhart has been working in the field. Coming from a family that likes to travel a lot, he likes landscape and lifestyle photography.
Since his brother, Jim, moved to Europe a few years ago, he has been caring for the house he bought on Government Camp, where he spends his free weekends and summers.
He has set up a studio in the garage of his brother’s house and has been taking lifestyle portraits of the locals as well as the landscape.
“I like landscape a lot as well,” Lenhart said. “Just walking and finding patterns in the land.”
According to Maier, Lenhart is focused and has a great eye. “I think he’ll succeed in whatever direction he goes,” Maier said. “He’s very savvy about the technology, curious and eager, all plusses.”
Lenhart has been working with Portland-based photographer Michael Hale assisting with lighting, carrying equipment and anything else he may be asked to do, outside of school.
Lenhart said he meets people through networking strategies and by going to photographer gatherings and open studios. He said he uses the Twitter directory, among other sources.
“I am really trying to build my portfolio with more lifestyle, active, magazine (style) photos,” Lenhart said. “I just keep doing what I want to do.”
Lenhart is currently working with Portland-based architecture/sculpture artist James Malbon Harrison putting together his portfolio. His other out of school projects include putting together a portfolio for an urban family that was starting an urban gardening business, as well as shooting the inside cover shot of writer Shawn Levy’s latest book publishing this spring.
His favorite part about photography is the freedom. He said working with people is a big aspect of the work and developing a relationship with the subject and the new settings is something he likes.
“He told me recently that from the moment he wakes up in the morning he’s either shooting with his camera or working with the images in Photoshop,” Maier said. “He is so incredibly focused.”
For more information about Lenhart’s photography visit his website at www.sdlenhart.com.
“The next one, whatever the next shoot is, is always the most fun,” Lenhart said.