Point of view

Now that the recipients of the 2010 Arts and Letters Awards have been announced, Stephen Brace can finally share the good news with others.

His digital photograph entitled "The Condition of Being Perfect" (pictured on the front page) was chosen as one of the winners in the junior visual art category. A total of 153 entries were made into this division, with Stephen being the only award winner from Central Newfoundland.

A Grade 12 student at Lewisporte Collegiate, Stephen was notified in March that he had won, but was asked not to tell anyone other than immediate family as other winners were still being notified and the official announcement was still a month away.

Stephen learned of the Arts and Letters Awards after he saw an item pertaining to it in The Pilot. He checked into the Arts and Letters website and decided to enter. With a vast array of photographs to choose from, he made a decision to send in "The Condition of Being Perfect".

"It was my favourite at the time - the one that I was most proud of, so I chose that one," he said. "The photo was inspired by the poem by Alfred Lord Tenneyson - the Lady of Shalott. One interpretation of it is that in order to be perfect in whatever you want to do in the poem - it was the Lady of Shalott making quilts - she had to distance herself away from the rest of the world so she could focus on doing her craft and being perfect at it.

"So in the picture I decided to wrap my face in a bandage and have paint dripping from it - the bandage symbolizes myself being blind from the rest of the world and all the paint being what I'm good at."

While Stephen didn't have the opportunity to explain the concept of his photo in making his submission to the Arts and Letters competition, his work obviously hit home with the adjudicators. The handwritten comment Stephen received from the adjudicator was, "What a strong and poetic image. Your selective use of colour is very striking. Great use of depth of field. Very well done."

Taking the award-winning photograph wasn't an easy task either as Stephen is also the subject in this work. He was working on this photograph when no one was at home.

"I was blinded (from the bandages covering his eyes) and I had paint dripping from my face so I couldn't really lift up the bandage and see what I was doing because I would mess up the paint," he said. "So I was walking blind throughout the house trying to take the picture and get the focus and composition right and trying to have everything perfect.

"I'm pretty pleased with my disabilities of taking a picture and how it came out."

This is the first time Stephen has entered any type of photo competition.

"It was my first time sending in anything so I didn't really expect anything from it," he said. "Now that I did win, it's like sweet, I did something great with this picture.

"It's great motivation to keep going. I like to do this as a hobby. Before this I was pretty iffy on whether or not I would like to expand on it, but I'm pretty sure now that I will."

Stephen's hobby of taking photographs began when he was in Grade 10.

"I spend a lot of time taking pictures," he said. "I think the best photos I take are when I'm in the mood - but everyday I pretty much have a camera in my hand at one point."

His hobby has produced a vast array of images with many posted on the flickr Internet photo sharing site. A variety of Stephen's work can be viewed there.

"My favourite thing right now is surrealism," he said in terms of his photographic style. "That usually involves a lot of Photoshop, but right now I'm trying to sway away from that and do more natural beauty in life."

While a number of his photos are self-portraits, he would like to move more towards taking pictures of other people to expand his skills as a photographer.

Stephen uses both digital and film cameras. He has a studio space in his house and is equipping himself with a variety of photography tools such as lenses, flashes, umbrellas and backdrops.

His mother Stephanie Brace has posed as a model for her son on a variety of photo shoots. She is proud of the work her son creates. She says he can find ways of taking pictures that are unexpected.

"Like one time he bought a bag of flour and I wondered why he did that," she said. "He went and took photos (Snow Blindness on this page is a result of that photo shoot) and it looks like he is out in a snowstorm."

She also sees the potential for him to take great photos of other people as he already has a portfolio of photos of some of his friends.

"He is always taking photos of friends. When he does take those they are absolutely beautiful."