Steven was born in 1965 in Saigon, Vietnam. His family spent a couple years living in Chiang-Mai, Thailand before they moved back to his mother’s hometown of Brevard, North Carolina. There he learned basic black and white photography from his aunt, photographer Patricia Austin. Steven attended Rice University in Houston, Texas on a National Merit Scholarship.
He studied photography with Geoff Winningham and Peter T. Brown at the Rice Media Center, becoming enchanted with color printing, and exploring multiple image compositions and collages. Steve has a B.A. in Biology/Art and Art History, and then a B.F.A. in Photography. Printing for many years on conventional Type C color paper from color negatives, he transitioned to digital imaging and archival inkjet printing in 2012.
Steve exhibited in the group show Light and Vision 2 at the Rice Media Center during FotoFest 2010, in Fresh Works at Flash Forward Festival Boston 2011, in New England Scapes in 2011 at Gallery Seven in Maynard, Massachusetts. Steven exhibited selections from his Quarries of New England portfolio at The Blue Hill Public Library in Maine in June 2015, and at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, Massachusetts in April & May of 2017. Stephen showed triptychs of Boston alleyways at night in the Greater Boston Night Photographers’ group exhibit Night Becomes Us at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts during 2016-2017. Steven was a featured artist at the Leica Gallery Boston in 2019 featuring photos from his Nights and Orkney Portfolios. In 2021 Steven showed two quarry triptychs in the PRC pop up group show Field of Vision at the CambridgSide mall in Massachusetts.
Steve is married to ceramic artist Lansing Wagner. The couple moved full time to East Blue Hill, Maine, in 2020 after many years of working for Harvard University, supporting Life Sciences education for undergraduates and extension school students. In their house, Steven has set up a digital printing studio, and Lansing a ceramics studio. Steve now works at MDI Biological Laboratory in Environmental Health and Safety and continues to do photography in his spare time. Lansing and Steve enjoy hiking and kayaking in addition to their artistic pursuits.