Steven Brock’s classic b&w photographs from Peru, Cuba, India, Nepal, and Tibet are in collections around the world. After apprenticing with master bookbinder Omero Benvenuti in Florence, Brock established a San Francisco studio where he makes and sells his marbled papers, journals, and limited edition prints and photography books.
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Pomabamba
Pomabamba is in the high Andes of Peru. Poma is from puma, the mountain cougar, and bamba, or pampa, describes a flat plain. Pomabamba is the largest town in the Cajellón de Conchucos, or valley of hats. It is the birthplace of the Chavín culture, the oldest Andean civilization known for its elaborate subterranean irrigation systems, painted ceramics, and temples with carved stone obelisks depicting pumas, condors, and serpents.
Ancient Presence
For the first time visitor, there are parts of Asia that hit you like a giant wave, the culture shock so overwhelming, that when you come up for air you realize that you will never be the same. The experience stays with you. There is an ancient presence that pervades the land and its people, a deep wisdom that only time can cultivate.
Havana Walk
Each afternoon when the light softened and the streets cooled, I split off from my family to wander the alleys of old Havana, alone with a camera at my waist. The streets that had been empty in the morning bustled with people, families out for a stroll, kids playing ball, men slapping down dominoes, mechanics fixing cars and motorcycles, teens with music blaring, bicycle rickshaws and old cars barreling through the narrow alleys.
35mm
My father gave me a Leica M3 for my 18th birthday. It was the most precious gem of a camera, and I knew that it would become my companion for some time to come. At the time I didn’t anticipate traveling alone in South America or Asia, but when I did, the Leica became a close friend, guiding me through difficult times and reminding me to seize the moment, even though the moment contains so much more than what fits through a camera lens.
Panoramics
Before we had kids, we traveled to India and Nepal, and I carried a big and heavy Fugica 6x17 panoramic camera that got only four frames to the roll, so I packed my film in 20 roll bricks. Arriving in Kuming, the police pulled me aside, disallowing the entry of so much film, then promptly x-rayed it despite my protests. In a back room they pointed at a suitcase full of loose crumpled bills, and told me to ante up.
Biciclette
While living with my family in Rome in 2005, I took the train once a week to Florence to study bookbinding with an old master, Omero Benvenuti. Biker that I am, I was immediately captivated by the old bikes, their elegant lines set against the backdrop of the ancient sculptured walls. The bikes became my lens and link to the city. They were everywhere, swirling through the lanes, stolen and re-painted, abandoned carcasses, stately steel frames, all the riders unknown to me.
Burma
In 2015 we traveled to Burma. It was an optimistic time, Aung San Suu Kyi had just won the election, President Obama had visited twice, and there were hopes of immanent democratic reforms. The optimism was short lived as conflicts arose with Rohingya militants and the army committed, massacres, tortures, and genocide. This tragedy was followed by a brutal and repressive military coup in 2020 and Aung San Suu Kyi is back in prison under desperate conditions.
Cuba
We first traveled to Cuba in 2001, shortly after the release of Wim Wenders film Buena Vista Social Club. We visited the island four times with our kids, and I carried my Hasselblad, cranking b&w film through the box held at my waist. After our last trip in 2018, I discovered that all negatives were unprintable. The film had expired and I thought it would be fine. Luckily, I had carried a small digital camera for scenes where the color was irresistible.
Oaxaca
Oaxaca is a vibrant and colorful city in southern Mexico known for its well preserved colonial architecture, baroque churches, diverse and bustling markets, and colorful celebrations like Dia de los muertos. Here the spirit of Mexico is very much alive, with a thriving arts and craft scene, amazing local cuisine, and impressive ruins of Monte Alban, the former capital of the Zapotec empire.
Italy
In 2005-2006 we lived in Rome. Five days a week we took Italian classes in the mornings and in the afternoons, I wandered the streets until the kids came home from school. The alleys of old Rome are like a living museum, ancient sculptures hanging off walls and a constantly flowing river of scooters, bikes, and sophisticated Italians always looking their best.
Morocco
It is challenging to practice street portraiture in a Muslim country like Morocco because I always look for a tacit agreement when I point a camera at someone. Either that, or I go unnoticed. In Morocco, it was mostly unnoticed.
Turkey
Turkey is situated at the crossroads of the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, and eastern Mediterranean. It is surrounded on three sides by the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea. It forms a land bridge between Europe and Asia, and is home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world.
Greece
My wife Leah lived in Athens for five years when she was in elementary school. She has a soft spot for all things Greek and she has adapted a Mediterranean diet and schedule. At a music camp in the Pelion peninsula, the organizer told us not to worry, “nothing starts earlier than an hour late.”
Ancash
In 2022 I returned to Ancash, Peru for the first time in twenty years. The changes were dramatic, especially the unregulated building around the cities and towns and the exponential proliferation of private vehicles, but the mountains were still majestic, the people spirited, and the markets abundant and bustling.
Bike Stalker
I began biking from my home in Bernal Heights to my studio in the Mission in 2017. As I worked on the Florence bike photographs, I resisted photographing San Francisco bikes, thinking that they were too new, the light was too harsh or too flat, and that there were too many cars in the way. But after a few months of riding, I began to see the color, the culture, moments of random connection and perfect alignment of bike and background.
Inverness
I always considered myself as primarily a street and portrait photographer, but when I moved my young family to Inverness in 2000, I fell in love with my backyard, the sweeping vast and open landscapes of the Point Reyes National Seashore. There is good reason why the local paper is called The Point Reyes Light.
Ridegrider
After the sun leaves our house in Inverness I ride up the ridge to catch a little more daylight, The mountain is always different, the light, the fog, the wind, the weather. It is a wild place. Gary Snyder one described Point Reyes as, “The eastern edge of the Pacific.”
Pomabamba Slideshow
When I lived in Pomabamba I always carried two cameras, one for b&w and the other for color slides. These slides show Pomabamba in the 1980’s and 1990’s, before the arrival of television, private transportation, and of course, the internet.
Leica M Diary
My father gave me a Leica M3 for my 18th birthday. When my grandfather died my mother offered me his collection of Leicas. The weight of the Leica always felt secure and precious in my hand. The shutter a metallic click. Metering and focusing were sometimes a guess, but occasionally it all worked, an image in the mind’s eye translated through the magic of light, lens, film, and paper.
Siblings
There is a precious thing that happens between siblings, especially at a young age when they depend on each other to navigate the grown-up world. There is an intimacy, a connection, a sharing that is especially strong when there are only two siblings. These years are fleeting.
