A Short Biography of Wayne Scott Wolfe

I was born in 1960 in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. My formative years were spent in the hills of Kentucky and Virginia where my father sold earth moving equipment to the coal mines. Although my family was prominent in the coal mining business (my grandfather was a mine superintendent for Westmoreland Mining), my vision was less down-to-earth.

My photographic work began in my early teens when I received the gift of a Polaroid Swinger instant camera. I still have those pictures. I would frequently photograph school friends during recess. They would then gather around to see the miracle of the latent image becoming real. I enjoyed the Polaroid imagery, but realized that I wanted to go further.

We were then living in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. I checked out every book on or about the photographic medium and art from our local public library. I was able to borrow a Kodak Pony 35mm camera from a classmate's mother and began to work with “real” photography.

After bugging my mother on the subject, I was allowed to build my first black & white darkroom at the age of 13. My Sycamore Avenue basement darkroom was furnished with a Bogen enlarger which was the gift of neighbors for whom I did household chores.

Like many budding photographers, I worked as Powell Valley High School yearbook photographer and also began entering various competitions. I had unknowingly begun my lifelong career.

I wanted to study photography so I applied for and received a grant to attend The Art Institute of Atlanta. I studied commercial and fine art photography. While attending I began a part time job with INTER COMM a company producing multi-media trade shows for companies such as Coca-Cola and other Atlanta businesses.

While attending The Art Institute of Atlanta, I experimented with 35mm panoramic constructions calling the finished works “Sequences.” I bought my first 2¼ KOWA medium format camera from a co-worker in the fall of 1985 and began to develop a body of work called “Fragments.”

After graduating from the Art Institute of Atlanta, I secured a position at the Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta's  daily newspaper had need of a photographer in the marketing department. I worked closely with art department staff to produce marketing pieces to promote events such as the Peachtree Road Race (posters) and various other marketing projects to promote the newspaper's business.

I moved to Dallas, Texas in 1992, where I'm presently working in an abstract post cubic construction style I call “CONSTRUCHEONYX™”, and a series using Flower Vases with projected images applied to a still life setting.

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                                        ©2001 Wayne Scott Wolfe
                                        Revised 17 February, 2002