Biography of Kevin Locke

My photographic career began as a young boy, taking photographs with a Kodak Brownie camera. I developed film and produced prints using a light bulb in our dirt cellar. I was captivated by light and shadow as well as its relationship to architecture from the start. The City of Boston offered summer photography classes in a roving darkroom set up in the back of a truck, so I hopped on the back of that truck.

The fine, simple architecture of New England influenced how I learned to see light and shadow. In particular, I was captivated by the pleasing economy of the work of Charles Bulfinch, whose architecture is ubiquitous in Boston. The masterful partnership of H.H. Richardson and Frederick Law Olmstead also influenced me. The architecture of Willard T. Sears in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum provided me with an abundance of dancing light and shadow in Mrs. Jack's famous Fenway Court.

Formal study of fine art photography began at New England Institute of Art in Boston. Then, while living in Rome for much of the 90s, I maintained a darkroom in Vatican City and produced a body of work, resulting in a show entitled Dialogo con il Divino. Three one-person shows were held in Rome, Florence and New York. I worked with the Artist-in-Residence at Boston College in developing choreographic interpretation of my images for the Rome show, held in the Palazzo Pamphili.

While using Rome as my base, I traveled much of Italy, capturing the fascinating interplay of light and shadow on the Italian landscape and built environment. I am interested in the spirituality of art and co-designed a private study course on the spirituality of Michelangelo with an art historian in Florence.

In 1998, I participated in an archeological/theological tour of the seven sites of the first Church Councils, beginning in Athens, then moving to various parts of Turkey, including Ephesus, Istanbul, Izmir, Nicea and other locations. The architecture of the Gateway to the East is both captivating and exotic.

In 1988, I spent a month on assignment in the former Soviet Union, shooting images of the changing face of the country and people. I produced a multi-media slide presentation (how technology has changed!) for the client, to demonstrate the cultural, political and religious changes in the evolving former USSR. The US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC and the Boston Globe purchased images from this body of work.

Over the years, I have received several national awards for photography and have also produced several cover photographs for America magazine.

In addition to photography I have studied art history at Fordham University and Universita' Pontificia Gregoriana (Rome). Additionally, I attended Accademia del Superfluo, a school of decorative arts in Rome, where I studied gilding, grisaille and marmo finto. I participated in the restoration of a 16th century Palazzo in Rome and studied gilding privately with artists in Florence.

In 1981, I had the privilege of working with James Goode, formerly of the Smithsonian Institution, in having Sedgwick Garden (early 20th Century Washington, D.C. apartment house) included in his popular book Best Addresses.

I continue to engage the interplay of light in shadow in the buildings of Washington, D.C., many of which find their genesis in the fine architecture of Rome and Athens.

Frequent trips to Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia keep my eye sharp and spirit full.


Purchasing Photographs

For prices and to purchase photographs from this site please click on the "Contact" button.

Archival quality photographs are printed on fine Epson Watercolor or Fine Art papers, using Epson superior quality inks.

Kevin Locke is available on a contract basis for:

Landscape photography
Licensing
Interior and exterior architectural photography
Fine art photography

Clients:
US Institute of Peace, Washington, DC
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
America Magazine
Boston Globe
Discovery Communications, Inc.
Jesuit Order, Rome, Italy

Associations:
National Trust for Historic Preservation
DC Preservation League
Committee of 100 on the Federal City
Washington Men's Camerata