Steve Speer

Steve Speer has been photographing the landscape since purchasing his first camera in the mid-1970s. A respected photographer and educator, his work is held in corporate collections and private residences nationally and internationally.

Working primarily in black and white, Speer’s photography is grounded in a disciplined study of light, form, and composition. His images move fluidly between rural and urban environments, revealing the quiet structure and enduring character of the landscapes he encounters. He is widely recognized for his international portfolios from China and Croatia, as well as his most recent in-depth photographic study of southern Italy.

Speer has also completed significant commissioned and institutional projects. These include a limited-edition, custom portfolio of industrial imagery for Suncor Energy, and a major book project developed in collaboration with BOMA (Building Owners and Managers of Alberta), visually chronicling more than a century of commercial real estate history in Calgary.

He studied photography at the Alberta University of the Arts in the early 1980s and returned as a sessional instructor in 2008. Speer has published two photography books: CHINA – Guangdong Province Portfolio and Building on the Bow: Landmarks of Calgary Commercial Real Estate. His portfolio of 43 industrial images was featured in LensWork Extended Edition #92, alongside works by Michael Kenna and Huntington Witherill. He has also contributed to Looking at Images: A Deeper Look at Selected Photographs (LensWork Publishing) and was the profiled photographer for Friesens Printing’s prestigious 2015 Engagement Calendar.