Some artists keep a palette of colors or a box of materials for inspiration; Steven S. Gregory keeps a digital file of skies. From his home in South Tampa, the photographer heads out to the Friendship Trail (alongside the Gandy Bridge) to shoot the overhead view whenever ominous weather rolls in or a gorgeous sunset glows. Later, as he uses a computer to compose photographic collages of Tampa's landscape, any one of more than 100 skies he has collected might provide the finishing touch.
Last year, the dramatic effects of his technique landed Gregory the honor of serving as Tampa's 2006 Photographer Laureate. The city-funded project enlists a different photographer each year to document Tampa's distinctive character in his or her unique visual style.
For his project, Gregory focused on "the disappearing Tampa" in places where the old city intersects with the rapid growth of its new incarnation. Since moving here from Iowa nearly 16 years ago, Gregory says, he has never seen anything quite like the current crescendo of development. His images bear witness to the changes, juxtaposing abandoned buildings with new construction.
Gregory achieves a slightly surreal lighting effect by combining a strobe flash with natural daylight. The Minolta A2, a mid-range "pro-sumer" camera, not a fancy professional one, is his tool of choice. And Photoshop allows him to seamlessly stitch together elements from different photographs — buildings, graffiti, plants, rocks and, of course, skies — in his elaborate compositions.
"I'm working more like a painter when I work, you know," Gregory says. "I'm not just photographing what's in front of me, I'm creating more of a sense of the feeling and mood of the time."
In July, his Photographer Laureate portfolio will be exhibited at the Tampa Museum of Art. In a recent interview, Gregory explained in his own words how the photographs on these pages came together.
Fifteen Minutes
Near the corner of Cass Street and Nebraska Avenue
I photographed the building, but it just felt like something was missing, it needed something in there. So I took the tricycle out into my front lawn and set it up, making sure that my lighting matched what I already had, and I ended up dropping it in there. … I shot that right after I shot [another photograph in the series]. I was packing up my stuff because the sun had gone behind the clouds, and I thought that was it for the day. As I was packing up my gear, it suddenly popped out from underneath the clouds and lit this building up. I went running to try to find just the right angle. One of the reasons it's called 'Fifteen Minutes' is because that's all the time I actually had to shoot it. The other thing is a reference to Andy Warhol, you know, everybody's famous for 15 minutes, and that was the building that they used in The Punisher.
We Had Everything
Pickford's Sundries on Hillsborough Avenue
In this shot, I was really interested in the old sign and all the black-and-white signage at the top of the building, which, to me, kind of summed up the old Florida tourist trap. … That right-hand wall going down the parking lot there, if you were to photograph it from where you see the sign and the front door, you wouldn't be able to see that wall. What I did is, I did one shot kind of around the corner a little bit and then came around and photographed it a second shot so the sign was where I wanted it, and I'm putting it together, blending it together so that you can see the whole building even though, technically, it's not really that way.
Crossing That Bridge
View of the Platt Street Bridge from the Riverwalk on Ashley Drive
I kind of lucked out on that shot. I got up nice and early, you know, and I was driving and I saw the bridge up. And I just didn't picture it at first with that bridge up. You know, I thought, "Aw man, I've lived here 15 years, and I've never seen this bridge up. Why is that bridge up?" But when I got down there and got into position, it really helped. The texture underneath the bridge, and it sort of filled an empty spot. It also sort of, to me, felt like a hand going up, and the old Tampa telling the new Tampa to slow down in a way.
Pardon Our Dust
Skypoint in downtown Tampa
The wheat-paste posters came off of another building downtown. They're only probably 2 or 3 feet high, and I found that little [graphic on the poster]: "Dirty But Sophisticated." That was the last shot I worked on, and I wanted to incorporate — you know, blatantly incorporate — some of the construction going on. That little saying, "Dirty But Sophisticated," seemed to sum up what Tampa was going through this year. So a little bit of the old Tampa buildings and the new high-rise springing up behind it.
Urban Explorer's Handbook 2007
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This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2007.