Stephen Chalmers (Boardman, OH) earned his MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is currently Professor of Photography at Youngstown State University, OH. He serves on the National Board of Directors for the Society for Photographic Education. Chalmers has taught workshops in alternative photographic processes as well as digital imaging and has been a visiting artist at numerous colleges and universities. He has contributed to five books and has been in group and solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. as well as Australia, British Columbia, China, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and Thailand. His work is in several collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; and Light Work, Syracuse. His work has appeared in international media, such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, The Huffington Post and TIME.
Statement from the Artist:
On February 1, 1896, Pearl Bryan was seven months pregnant when she was murdered and decapitated in northern Kentucky by her lover with the assistance of his roommate. This crime was called “the crime of the century” and captured the imagination of the country – with daily coverage of the trial in The New York Times and more than 25 popular folk songs. By photographing the original sites and artifacts related to the crime and acquiring historic ephemera related to the life and death of Pearl Bryan (including scouring the original site of her home with a metal detector and using contemporaneous books, newspaper accounts and original court transcripts of the crime) Chalmers visually tells the story of Pearl Bryan.