Internationally recognized photographer Max Steven Grossman is to grace the Four Seasons Resort Whistler on Monday, July 24 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. for a meet-and-greet in the Lower Gallery.
Grossman is truly a global citizen: he was born in Barranquilla, Colombia and has studied in New York City and Philadelphia. Life has taken him across many borders to nations such as India, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, Canada and the United States. His work can likewise be found in galleries around the world, including Los Angeles, Miami, Long Island, Palm Springs, Hong Kong, Argentina, and Spain, as well as the Colombian cities of Bogota, Cartagena and Barranquilla.
Local art enthusiasts may have seen his photographs on display in the Whistler Contemporary Gallery.
Paradigm shift
One of Grossman’s signature series is “Bookscapes”: kaleidoscopic collages of books from different stores and settings arranged around a particular topic. As a passionate reader, Grossman feels that electronic media cannot fully replace the experience of turning a physical page, and his images capture a poignant sense of what once was.
“It’s kind of like a nostalgic reminder of the things that we lose,” he explains. “I have a daughter. Of course, I try to read to her and show her the importance of books, but every class that she goes to [as she gets older], they have less books in their bags, and they have just an iPad or some electronic device that you can access all the information through.
“Things are shifting, and there are fewer and fewer bookstores every year.”
Grossman’s entire photography career was borne of a paradigm shift in his own life. He is the son of a textile company owner, and studied textile engineering as a young adult. In that regard, he was not so different from other residents of Barranquilla, where taking the path of least resistance is common.
“I grew up in a very close community where it was like: you just follow your path and you’ll be secure in that little path,” Grossman says. “You just stay confined in the town, and you go to work, and you get married, and you have kids, and life goes on.
“But I had always something in me that was making me look for other ways and try different things.”
Travelling the world opened Grossman’s eyes to myriad differing cultures, beliefs and ways of life. Years after completing his engineering degree from a university in Philadelphia and taking a job in his native country, he realized the corporate world of cubicles and quarterly reports simply wasn’t for him.
Ironically, he found the key to his future in his former office: an old-school, Canon A-1 analog camera that no one else took ownership of.
His true calling
Grossman had little to no photography experience at this point, but he quickly signed up for a course. His first mentor impressed upon him the value of travelling, not just for leisure and life experience, but also to sharpen his picture-taking skills. Grossman’s first assignment was a trip down the Magdalena River, and before long he found himself in Israel and Jordan.
The former engineer had discovered his calling.
In 2000, Grossman graduated from New York University’s International Center of Photography with a master of arts. Studying in the Big Apple helped him learn to shoot buildings and architectural features in addition to the nature photos and geometric images he was already proficient in. Today, Grossman has 10 galleries in Canada and the United States alone.
Now firmly entrenched in the realm of visual arts, the Colombian nonetheless feels his first career has lessons to teach him.
“What I really liked about engineering is that they teach you to think of a problem, and you have to find the [right] tool,” he says. “There are many tools to solve the same problem, so with this engineering background, I can access many tools.”
Grossman’s proverbial toolbox equips him to make the most out of each source of inspiration. Nature continues to provide all kinds of creative stimuli for him, whether it comes in the form of a snow-capped mountain, a pristine, glacier-fed river, or a serene hike through old-growth forests. Whistler, of course, has all of these things and more, and Grossman knows it: years ago he dropped by for a ski trip with a friend.
“It was fantastic,” he recalls. “I think: all the ideas that you have, they are already in nature. You just have to look at them, to take them from there.”
