Steven Underhill was born in Oakland, California, in 1962 and grew up in the Bay Area. After graduating from UCLA in 1986 he returned to Northern California, where he has become a celebrated portrait photographer.
Steven Underhill was born in Oakland, California, in 1962 and grew up in the Bay Area. After graduating from UCLA in 1986 he returned to Northern California, where he has become a celebrated portrait photographer.
Underhill lives in a rural area of the wine country; he shoots entirely in monochrome, in an uncomplicated style which has been compared to Bruce Weber. He is working on a European book, and has recently had shows in Seattle and San Francisco; reviewing his recent exhibition, the Bay Area Reporter said his images "explode with exquisite grace."
Underhill has no formal training in photography: "My objective was to make the subjects feel comfortable and photograph them with as little direction as possible."
Yet this reductive simplicity - Underhill always shoots straight on - is precisely what makes the pictures interesting. As the Reporter noted, "this is the real thing."
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