The Guardian

ARTIST PHOTOGRAPHER
WALTER J. STEVENS
Former Bostonian now living in Syracuse, N. Y., who devoted his leisure time to the study of photography and won distinction for excellence in photographic art.

FORMER
BAY
STATE
MAN
IS
EXPERT PHOTOGRAPHER

SYRACUSE, N. Y.—The Board of Directors of the Photographic Society of America, meeting in New York City last April, awarded the degree of F. P. S. A. to Walter J. Stevens of Syracuse, N. Y., for excellence in photographic technique. Mr. Stevens for several years past has devoted his spare time from his duties as Chief Investigator for the New York State Department of Labor, to the study of pictorial photography.

During the past year he was an enrolled student in the New York Institute of Photography of New York City, where he specialized in composition and portraiture. When the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, N. Y., sought a man best fitted to be Chairman of the Eastman Kodak 1940 Exhibit, Mr. Stevens had the unanimous endorsement of the Technology Club of the Chamber of Commerce in Syracuse and was endorsed by all of the photographic supply houses of Syracuse to head the Local Committee in charge of the Exhibit. Prior to coming to Syracuse this exhibit had been shown in all the principal cities of the country and is now a feature at the World's Fair in New York. On the Committee with Mr. Stevens were representatives of the cultural and artistic life of central New York, including members of the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, professors of high schools and photographic technicians from many industrial plants and corporations.

Mr. Stevens's photographic studies have appeared on the cover of Opportunity magazine, as well as in the Arts Quarterly Magazine of Dillard University. His work has been hung in the Museum of Fine Arts in Syracuse, and has often been reproduced in the rotogravure sections of the Syracuse Sunday newspapers. His photographic study titled "Li'l Brown Boy" has been acclaimed by experts throughout the country. This picture won first prize at the 1939 New York State Fair, and was on display for a week in the windows of the Merchants National Bank & Trust Company of Syracuse. His picture "The Old Mill" taken at the Wayside Inn at Sudbury, Mass., which is now owned by Henry Ford, is another example of Mr. Stevens's knowledge of photographic detail.

The Post-Standard, a Syracuse newspaper, stated in a lengthy article on his work that he is an outstanding amateur who knows beautiful composition and uses his camera to record beauty as a painter uses his brush."

Mr. Stevens won second prize recently in a State-wide contest for pictures portraying a typical college girl. Another of his pictures that has created most favorable comment is titled "Boy on a Horse" and was purchased for fifty dollars by the president of one of the leading banks in Syracuse, N. Y.

His photographic study of a young ballet dancer titled "Petite Danseuse" won first prize in the recent Syracuse Y.M.C.A. exhibit. His picture of a colored choir-boy was hailed throughout the South, was used for photographic study at Dillard University and was reproduced on Christmas cards and circulated throughout the South.

He is now engaged on a special assignment by the Photographic Society of America to picture the various types of service rendered by the oil industry to the consumer, which pictures are to be on exhibit at the American Petroleum Institute, New York City, in October, 1940.

Mr. Stevens plans to visit Boston in early July to take pictures of the beautiful gates and fences that enclose the buildings at Harvard University, and also to visit his sister, Mrs. Mary Saunders of 23 Holborn Street, Roxbury whom he has not seen for several years.