(Palo Alto, California, 1953 - )
1999
Toned gelatin silver print
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of George Stephanopoulos
2006.322
Once a professional dancer, Stivers turned to photography after a serious back injury forced him to retire. Stivers’s images are conceptually based. He believes “it is the true nature of photography not necessarily to document, but to alter or transform the scene or event – whether contrived or not – into a personal alternative reality.” The artist’s soft-focus, artfully toned and stained images are mysterious, romantic and sensual. He often depicts objects “floating” in a pitch-black ambiguous space, eliminating any context for the image.