Local photographer’s work featured in Birmingham Public Library’s art gallery

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Since September 9, beautiful black-and-white photographs of musicians have adorned the walls of the Birmingham Public Library’s Fourth Floor Gallery. A reception for the artist behind the lens, Roger Stephenson, was held Saturday afternoon.

“This is probably the third or fourth exhibit that I’ve had,” Stephenson counted. “But I wasn’t imagining that I’d get exhibits!”

The performance photographer was born in Leeds, England. He moved to the United States in 1976, starting his career as an accountant. When he moved to Birmingham in 2002, he found himself working for Southern Living.

It wasn’t until he retired in 2009 that Stephenson began taking photography seriously.

“I’d always been interested in photography, and I’d always been interested in music, and so I kind of put the two together when I had time to do it,” tells Stephenson.

“I was going to Gip’s Place and some of the hole-in-the-wall music places that Birmingham has. There’s great music in Birmingham, so I thought, ‘Why not take photographs?’”

It didn’t take long for people to notice that Stephenson had a talent for capturing the spirit of performers in his pictures.

“People started saying, ‘Hey, that’s a good photograph!’ So I started doing more and more of it.”

Stephenson began posting his pictures on Facebook and sending them to the musicians he photographed, free of charge. 15 years later, complete strangers are walking around his exhibit on a rainy September day, mesmerized by the snapshots on display.

“I try to capture someone at a point of doing something. With his mouth open, with an expression, with him playing, with him being on-stage. So, I hope it can transport [viewers] back to that stage, looking at the musician – and maybe even hear a little music if they think about it!”

Some visitors at the exhibit approach Stephenson to tell their favorite memory of a club he photographed that has since closed down. Others remember a musician he captured who has since passed away. This, he says, is extremely rewarding.

“When you take the photograph at the time, you don’t really think that you’re documenting history. But when you look back 10, 15 years, and I know that’s not a lot of time, but it is documenting history as far as a lot of those people, or the club that is not open anymore. So yeah, there’s Birmingham history.”

Stephenson’s work will be displayed on the fourth floor of the Birmingham Public Library through October 25, free for all who want to stroll through moments from Birmingham’s rich musical history.

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