September 12, 2016

Meet South Bay Artist & Photographer: Stephan Canthal

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephan Canthal.

Stephan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I became involved in the art of photography while studying architecture at the University of Southern California. I later transferred to California State University, Long Beach to pursue a Fine Arts degree in
photography.

It was there at USC, where I first fell in love with photography. But it wasn’t until I studied art at CSULB, that my mind became open to different photographic and art mediums. It was in school where I played with the idea of merging traditional photography and modern art to try and create something new that people hadn’t seen before.

When I first started, I was taking mostly architectural photographs of LA. I loved the documenting the skyscrapers, freeways, and LA lifestyle, showing the beautiful design work of the city. But I wanted to accent that imagery and really reflect the industrial imagery I was taking, which led to my printing on aluminum. It was back in 1996 when I first had this idea of printing my photos on aluminum. Back then the best I could do was photo silkscreens on raw aluminum sheets. They looked great but didn’t get the details and colors I really wanted. A few years later inkjet technology was growing giving an artist like myself other avenues to print on.

Through work, I was given the opportunity to experiment on the Epson 10000. It took a few years of playing with different methods until I was able to successfully print a digital photograph directly onto raw aluminum. This was many years before printers even gave this option. I had to come up with my own method and protocol to make a successful print on to aluminum. In the beginning, my success rate was 3 out of 4 would be good. It took many years from there, many experiments, to finally make it so all the prints were good. My process is much longer than most, taking at least 10 days to finish a piece. I usually like the print to dry for at least a week. Compared to other printers who turn around in day, my process is a more unique look, with my ink set being translucent so you can see the aluminum underneath the imagery. Unlike other printers who use a powdered ink that sits on top of the aluminum, my method blends in with it making it more artistic, using the aluminum as part of the imagery. There is more of a 3-d look to my work because of the reflective quality of the surface.

From that point, I worked on other imagery like my motion nudes that use the aluminum (scratched surface) to accent the movement of the human form. And then pushing different substrates, I experimented with printing on wood. And then playing with wood, paint, and aluminum together.

I try not to limit myself on what I can create, using technology to try and push the presentation of my art to showcase the imagery.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been a long road of experimentation for me. The first print I ever made on aluminum I waited almost a whole year and it never dried. There have been quite a few failures along the way, but it just helped the process become better and stronger. Sometimes technology did not want to play well with me, and there was a lot of just sitting and waiting.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
When I realized 4 years ago I had sold over $200,000 in art sales, in the past 8 years, and I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s a lot of art across the world of mine, just sitting in people’s homes and offices!” Pretty cool thinking of it that way…thinking about how many people are out there enjoying my art. It makes me proud and happy that there are so many pieces of my art people are enjoying out there.

Every story has ups and downs. What were some of the downs others might not be aware of?
Hardest moment was after the 2008 recession, and my art sales dropped 60%. I wasn’t ready for that, but people were hurting and not spending a lot of money on art. It took many years to come back from that, had to cut my overhead a lot. I’m still not making the same money I was before 2008 and had to expand my services to include photography and graphic design. I don’t mind, though, it turns out I really like graphic design and I feel like I’m really getting good at it and starting to use more graphic design into my artwork. I think it’s those struggles that push you to work harder and expand your work to cover more ideas.

Is there something we can do as a city to improve the outlook for professionals like you?
I love LA. I wasn’t born here but came to LA when I was 3, from Peru. It feels like my home and I can’t imagine working someplace else. There is so much to see and experience in LA., and I love the beach, so I don’t see myself ever living that far from a beach. The great thing about LA, career wise, is that there are so many avenues to show my work and get exposure. Besides the galleries, there are, alternative spaces, like restaurants and even people’s homes and work to do shows in. Most of my work is about LA, the city life, beaches, architecture, lifestyle. As an artist, I would recommend other artists spend some time in LA and experience the culture and see if that has any influence on their work.

Pricing:

Printing price ranges from $100 to $3000, depending on sizing and what you need. I can do custom prints of your own imagery on aluminum, wood, paper, canvas, or whatever you might need. And I can also create custom prints of own art to any size you might need.
Photography pricing is from $250 for 2hrs, $100 for each extra hour. Full digital files are yours to keep.
Graphic Design and Photoshop work is $50 and hour.

Contact Info: