Steve Dietl was 10 years old when he joined a friend (also 10) to produce a couple of what they proudly called “neighborhood newspapers” in Santa Monica, CA. The friend would write the copy, Steve would shoot the Polaroids.
Forty years later Steve’s become one of the most active still photographers in the Georgia’s film industry with dozens of credits, including “Ozark,” “Real Housewives of Atlanta” and “Raising Dion.”
“The local film economy enabled me to buy a house, settle down, get married and run the rivers of North Georgia,” says Steve, who moved to Georgia in 2016.
Before his film and television work, Steve was a painter and printmaker who incorporated into photographs taken by others into his own his creations.
“I decided to hone my photography skills to be able to use my own images rather than appropriate from other sources,” says Steve, “When I did, the photography became a larger element in my work.”
He moved to Atlanta from New Orleans four years ago. By this time he had been working as a still photographer on sets for about 10 years.
Before coming to Atlanta Steve worked primarily on feature films, but here he began working on more episodic television and the occasional reality show.
“I’d work on a feature one day,” he says, “episodic television the next day and a reality show the day after that. The variety of opportunities was exciting. In network TV you get a real sense of structure, on a feature you get the feeling of experimentation and a reality show is like improvised jazz.”
The variety of assignments also stretched his creativity. “You never know what importance a photograph will have,” he says. “All of a sudden you see your photo in a magazine or up on a billboard.”
To keep busy during the slowdown of a pandemic Steve took on some personal projects.
“To keep myself interested and get outside during the quarantine I’ve been photographing neighbors and fellow crew members, socializing while I work with them in their own backyards. Often artists work in isolation, so this was a good way to keep busy and keep sane.”
He displays this collection, called “Camp Isolation,” on his Instagram account, @steve_dietl.