The photography of Stephen Chalmers will be featured at the Chase Gallery, September 3 through October 31, 2008.  The Chase Gallery is located in City Hall at 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. in Spokane.  An artist reception will be held in conjunction with Fall Visual Arts Tour on Friday, October 3, 5 to 9 p.m.  Gallery hours are Monday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Stephen Chalmers will present “Transience,” a project of photographs of Snowbirds and the individuals who use RVs as permanent residences, along with landscape images of the areas in which they occupy.  As Chalmers states, by the time that the photographer Dorothea Lange and author John Steinbeck created their works on transient populations in the west, the RV industry was already in its infancy. RV Parks sprouted throughout the Sun Belt and became “winter homes” for retired Snowbirds. Although designed as a temporary travel home the RV has also become primary residence for many people of limited means. They make permanent homes for themselves in RV Parks, on the public lands maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), or ‘squatting’ off the grid in the desert southwest. 

Stephen Chalmers holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology (with honors) and Photography from the University of Louisville, Kentucky and an MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He has held faculty positions at Washington State University (Pullman, WA) and Central Washington University (Ellensburg) and has also taught gang affected children photography and been a counselor to severely emotionally disturbed children in Portland, OR.   

Chalmers work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally (most recently in September of 2008 at the Pingyao Photography Festival in China). Recipient of a 2007 Artist Trust Grant for Artist Projects, Chalmers has also been awarded an Edward R. Meyer Project Award and a Seed Grant from Washington State University, and numerous other awards. His work is in public collections including the Polaroid Foundation (Waltham, MA), the Lightwork Collection (Syracuse, NY), and the J. Paul Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, CA).  

Additional information about Stephen Chalmers and samples of his work can be found at his website: www.askew-view.com (www.askew-view.com)

For more information visit www.spokanearts.org/chase.aspx (www.spokanearts.org/chase.aspx)

The Chase Gallery is located in City Hall at 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. in Spokane, WA.