Stasia PenkoffLidbeck has been an artistic photographer for over 21 years!!! She attended Rhode Island School of Design but was not formally trained in photography, so that proves how you can do anything if you set your mind to it.

Before she came to be a photographic artist she was a marine biologist. She once worked at Harvard as an exhibit designer and as a scientific illustrator at the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Later, she was a scientific illustrator and graphic artist at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT. Most of her work now focuses on photography. PenkoffLidbeck uses Leica 35mm cameras to take her photographs. Her specialty is coloring her black and white photographs, using photo oils.

PenkoffLidbeck develops her film in her own dark room. She decides what negatives to print on photographic paper. She can use the lens on the enlarger to zoom in and focus on a particular part of the image. If the developed picture comes out with a hot spot some areas of the picture will be lighter than usual. By developing her own prints she has more control over how they turn out and can correct for hot spots, etc. She enjoys photography very much and learns something new every day.

To color her pictures, PenkoffLidbeck likes to focus on a particular part of the image so that it is highlighted or contrasted with the rest of the picture. Using such tools as cotton q-tips, and photo pencils, she mixes her palette and adds the color to the image. It takes overnight for the oil to dry. She then frames her works in antique frames selected to match the image. She finds mixing her love for illustration with photography very satisfying!