Stephen Chalmers: Unmarked, Speaking Light Lecture Series

The Speaking Light Lecture Series continues with photographer Stephen Chalmers. Stephen will be presenting his project “Unmarked”, which documents the locations where the victims of serial killers were found. These locations were precisely located using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, police records and newspaper articles.

“Stephen Chalmers’ photographs of sites where serial killers dumped their victims on the West Coast of America are haunted with the final experiences of the victims that were brutally disposed of. They also tap into our society’s fascination with what murder looks like. Obscured by the passage of time and often invoking the natural beauty surrounding them—wilderness areas being ideal dumping places—Chalmers’ pictures challenge photography’s ability to expose the spectral history of a location and the knowledge of its viewers.” (Natasha Egan, Associate Director, Museum of Contemporary Photography. Chicago)

The lecture will begin at 6PM on Friday March 30 in the JVH Auditorium located on the 2^nd Floor of Thayer Hall (201 Wood Street) on Point Park’s Campus.

More about Stephen:

Stephen Chalmers has worked as a Lead Treatment Counselor to Severely Emotionally Disturbed children, worked as an Emergency Medical Technician, and taught gang children photography – informing his projects which deal with issues of loss. Chalmers has taught many workshops in alternative photographic processes and digital imaging, and been a visiting artist at numerous colleges and universities. He has also been a contributor to five books, and has been in group and solo exhibitions throughout the US and also in Australia, Ireland, British Columbia, Thailand, England, South Africa, and China. Stephen Chalmers earned his MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, was the NW Regional Chair for the Society for Photographic Education for two terms, was professor of Photography and Digital Media in the state of Washington for eight years and is currently a professor of Photography at Youngstown State University in Ohio. The work of Stephen Chalmers is in several collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Light Work, Polaroid, and the Getty Research Institute. Since the start of March of 2012, his work was featured on the Picture Show on National Public Radio (NPR), the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail (UK) and other venues.

Selections from his projects and more biographical information can be viewed at: www.stephenchalmers.com