The Curator’s Eye

Head over Feet | Steve Naccarato, Photographer
Selected by Robert Stocker, Robert Daniel Gallery

Monsoon Room 2AM, 2007, metallic paper, 20 X 30 inches

When he took this photo two years ago, Steve Naccarato was very much in love with the woman to whom these feet belong. During a party at the now-closed Monsoon Room, he saw a light falling on her legs and snapped the shot, feeling he could spend the rest of his life with those feet. Soon after, unfortunately, the couple decided to split. “Now the photograph speaks to me in a different language,” Naccarato says.

And, yes, it is a photograph. Formerly a family partner in one of the city’s most successful restaurant groups, Naccarato picked up a camera for the first time eight years ago. He hasn’t really looked back at the restaurant-mogul life since. He loves the power of digital technology; the immediacy of the medium makes it easy for him to conduct experiments: to add filters and colors, to print photos both minuscule and huge on a variety of surfaces — even on watercolor paper and canvas. He also loves not having any employees.

ARTIST STATS

Born and raised in: Tacoma (Stadium grad)
Subject matter: Still evolving
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Muses: Annie Leibovitz for her eye; Andy Warhol for “taking it to a place it had never been before”
Other projects: Managing singer/songwriter Daniel Blue
You can find him: At the Hub and the Mad Hat Tea Company. “I try to patronize the owner-operated establishments. I know how hard it is to make a go of it; plus, corporate spots don’t have any soul.”
To see more: SteveNaccarato.com