Stein’s black and white photographs pursue character and the constituent elements that create them. Absence and the passage of time is a recurring theme. Described as a portrait photographer, her work is not confined to the figure or facial studies but the wider meaning of portraiture, from the conventional face to the breath of wider open landscapes, from small intimate details to the landscape on the grand scale. Though meticulously composed in the camera her practice gives equal emphasis to the subtleties of the darkroom and meticulous attention to detail in printing.
Born in Dublin, Ireland 1958. Stein was elected a member of the RHA in 2004 and the first photographer elected. Elected the first female photographer to Aosdána in 2006 (Aosdána, founded in 1981, honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland). Her work is represented in the collections of The National Gallery of Ireland, IMMA ( Irish Museum of Modern Art ), the Arts Council of Ireland and have been on view in solo and group shows in both public and private venues to the present day. Formerly as a performing arts photographer, Stein worked in theatre and opera in Ireland, 1979-2000.
Stein is represented by Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. www.oliversearsgallery.ie
THE BLOODS 2020.Working with members of the Irish Defence Forces from the 3 Inf Bn, based in James Stephens Barracks, Kilkenny, 58 Portraits, a visual inventory in the medium of traditional black and white photography, and a portrait in time, that seeks to represent the diversity of those men and women who are currently serving or have served within the walls of one particular Barracks. A walled town within a former Medieval Walled Town, Kilkenny .The first exhibition in the newly refurbished Butler Gallery, a contemporary art gallery and museum in Kilkenny, Ireland. It presents a collection of works by Irish and international artists from the 18th century to the present day.
PRECIPICE 2015/16. Just a breath of a footstep too close to the edge, between the mesmeric and pure fear at the cliff edge.The recording and interpretation of the landscape, its features named and handed down in local oral history, Dún Chaoicháin, County Mayo.
ERRIS 2015. Comprises of two distinct bodies of work, taken in the Wild Atlantic location of the Barony of Erris. Wild and bleak, this landscape has challenged and shaped its inhabitants over the Millennia.
THE BIG SKY 2012. Absence and Migration. The vernacular buildings, abandoned houses and sheds in the rural landscape as still life objects in the vast wide open north Mayo landscape.
RHA PORTRAITS 2009. Publication, a moment in time of the Evolution of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts membership, a documentation of the 50 studios, the chairs upon which each artist performs the act of contemplation during their individual work practice, their tools and the hand of the artist.
THE PALM HOUSE 2002. Showing the timeworn fabric of the Great Palm house at the National Botanical Gardens, Dublin prior to its restoration.
LOSS AND MEMORY 2002. Dedicated to the passing of her Parents, where dark and intimate still lives of small personal belongings and household items represent the loss of Family.