Stan Jorstad was born in New York in 1922. After attending Temple University he enlisted in the ski troops with the US Army’s famed 10th Mountain Division. He served in Italy and was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and three Bronze Service Stars. Training and living in the mountains focused his insatiable desire to photograph the spectacular landscapes of our National Parks and wild places. He has spent most of his lifetime doing that, and continues to do so, unlike no one before him.
He went shooting with his friend and mentor Ansel Adams and with Elliot Porter. As clearly seen from his photographs, he has developed his own unique painterly style of realism, and remains steadfast in his pursuit of purity in the honest, unfalsified images he both shoots and prints. Using film and large format non-digital cameras he produces what nature has presented him. His vivid clarity of observation and technical skills place him among the top rank of the world’s photographers.
After the war Stan came to Chicago and studied design and photography for 5 years. He was employed with the Raymond Loewy Design Firm for two years and then joined Container Corporation of America’s Design and Market Research Laboratory where he earned over 50 national awards for excellence in photography, art and design while employed there as Director of Photography.
In 1979 Stan opened PhotoMark Corporation, now in St. Charles, Illinois. PhotoMark blends a mixture of commercial and fine art photography in both the studio and on location. Stan’s dedication and life long commitment to his art is apparent in his large collection of images. Capturing the natural essence of the wild outdoors remains Stan’s working objective.
His book These Rare Lands published by Simon & Schuster is a landmark achievement of a lifetime dream. Robert Redford stated in the book’s introduction… “ Just as these places are national treasures, so to are Stan Jorstad’s images.”
Website
http://www.stanjorstad.com
