Stasia Schmidt

About the artist

Stasia Schmidt (b.1978) is an award winning fine art photographer based in Calgary, Alberta. Her landscapes and portraits show attention to simplicity and form. She is drawn to unexpected surrealism within the natural environment, and throughout the photographic process Stasia works to layer subversive femininity with stark reality.

Self taught, she draws from a deep well of inspiration that includes a love of music, dance, science fiction, and adventure. The medium of photography is her chosen method of exploring creative boundaries and challenging expectations in order to create provocative, vivid, and resonant art.

Stasia Schmidt is the 3rd prize winner of the Photography Award, Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2024

Artwork Themes & Subject Matter

Stasia Schmidt created Ephemerality as a way to explore her own femininity while out adventuring in environments that have traditionally been considered the domain of men. 

Harsh, bleak landscapes call to her in a way that makes her feel vividly alive. There are many images of places like this, usually featuring a man in outdoor gear, staring off into the distance. “My vision for this series was to prove to myself, and others, that femininity also belongs”.

Self-portraits deep in the Canadian Rocky glaciers or along slick Greenlandic oceanside cliffs were an opportunity for her to tap into her own feminine connection with the environment. The experience wasn’t about conquering a peak or bagging a specific hike; it was to be fully present with all of her senses and feel truly engaged with her surroundings. After reaching the location she knew she would shoot, “I swathed myself in phantom-like fabric, not to become anonymous, but rather to invite the viewer to imagine a different perspective”. 

Press

Stasia Schmidt’s photographs had been featured in notable magazine and online sources including Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Leica Fotografie International Magazine, Leica Camera Blog, and CBC Arts.

Upcoming Exhibitions

CV

Education

Self-taught

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

See also

9

PAINTINGFIGURATIVE ARTOILPORTRAITUREREALISM

Katie Middleton

Basalt, Women in Photography, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, Scotland

 Friends in Focus, Three Sisters Gallery, Canmore, Alberta

Basalt, Emerging Photographers Showcase, Exposure Photography Festival, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, Alberta

2023

Icefall, Color, Shape, Space, Cross Currents Gallery