Meet artist photographer Craig Scoffone…the gentle beauty of the hills and valleys of Santa Clara County, at the south end of the San Francisco Bay Area, has posed a challenge to Craig Scoffone ever since he first hiked its trails camera in hand.  

Meet Artist Photographer Craig Scoffone

The challenge was namely this: how to capture the variety of colors, textures and shapes that mark this area as nature’s halfway point between the parched scrubland of Southern California and the evergreen forests of the north.

The seed of Craig’s interest in landscape photography was planted, in fact, well before he started exploring the backcountry of his native South Bay region. His earliest photographic captures of the area consisted of shots taken, when just a young boy, of various objects in the backyard of his parents’ home in San Jose.

With time, what had started as a hobby turned into something considerably more serious.

His weekend and after-school photographic exploration of this area, as well as time spent in  darkrooms during his teenage years. eventually bore fruit in the form of an award from the prestigious National Photography Yearbook.

His commitment to his art thus honored, young Craig busied himself with an intensive curriculum of post-secondary classes at a local college. One of the most important directions taken during this period was that of abstractionism.

One of the ways in which he deepened his grasp of this aesthetic was by experimenting with various color printing methods in his portfolio class. Just as important were his Friday – weather permitting – hikes in the South Bay hills and regional parks in search of new compositions. These explorations intensified in early Spring and late Fall, when the gradations of light and shade were at their most subtle.

Further encouragement came in the form of another bit of praise straight from the “horse’s mouth, this time coming from a college instructor who assured Craig that she had never had another student in her long career who was as gifted as he. His realizing that photography was the right path for him quickly translated itself into action, as he chose to continue to hone his craft by working as a commercial photographer’s assistant by day and photographing the open spaces of the South Bay in his free time.

Recognition for his work continued during this transition from school to professional maturity……

(to be continued)

View Craig Scoffone’s  landscape art