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  • Black and white photo of barren grape vines pruned into the shape of crosses with dramatic white clouds shrouding the top of the Santa Lucia Mountains in the background.
    A grizzly bear cub whispers in the ear of another cub.
    Police helmets and bowling pins litter the grass outside an overgrown concrete warehouse.
    Kegs lined up to be filled with lights reflected off their metallic surface.
    Photo of a sailboat inside a wine glass at sunset.
    Blue-colored man guzzling brown ale and coloring his mouth and throat brown.
    Wrecked cars line the bank of a creek with a Monterey County Line sign and cattle.
    Silhouette of an old army watch tower in front of a sunset over the Monterey Peninsula.
    Silhouetted barren grape vines reach up to a cloudy sky with a cluster of dried grapes that never dropped.
    Remnants of a aquatic activities rest in a pond of stagnant water at the bottom of a swimming pool.
    Crab hiding inside a clam shell with his claws hanging out.
    Metal tunnel with pool of water and light at the end.
  • Family playing at a river’s edge with trees and mountains across the river.
    Massive snow-capped mountain peaks leading down into a plush green valley with 2 people very small in the lower corner.
    Road leading through a green valley and mountain pass to a snow-covered mountain peak.
    Road leading through a green valley and mountain pass to a snow-covered mountain peak.
    Mountain peal sticking out above the clouds of a dramatic summer storm with a range of mountains below.
    Huskies wearing sunglasses.
    Grizzly Bear staring at the camera.
    Mother grizzly bear and her cub eating grass.
    Grape vines with city lights and mountains in the background.
    Grape vines with colorful lights in the night sky.
    Black bird sitting in vineyard.
    Columns of twisted barren grape vines in the fog in black and white.
  • Barren grapevine forms the shape of a cross in black and white.
    Tire swing hangs from tree branches.
    Tire tree swing.
    Silhouette of power lines and birds swarming around and sitting on them at sunset.
    Silhouette of power lines and birds swarming around and sitting on them at sunset.
    Water drops in a spider’s web.
    Looking down a vineyard row that looks like it’s been painted.
    Man with babies climbing all over him.
    Fisherman working on nets on a boat.
    Showing a spectrum of color, pint glasses of craft beer line the bar.
    6 beer tasting glasses stagger out of focus across a wooden bar with colorful lights.
    Mossy tire on the bank of a stream surrounded by glowing brush and trees.
  • Burnt tree trunk stands alone in a dried grassy meadow.
    A fence blocks the view of a strawberry field.
    Man sitting on parked kayak on bank of river surrounded by glowing brush and trees.
    2 cars half-buried in a grassy field.
    Shattered glass fills the floor of an large aquatic building.
    Telephone booth in the middle of wilderness.
    Barbed wire fence blocks access to beach at sunset.
    Train cars litter a field like they were dropped from the sky.
    Close up of weathered piano keys.
    Chair facing the corner of concrete walls with light coming in from a window above and graffiti on he wall below it.
    Old cars from different eras line the bank of a river.
    An empty warehouse with an armchair and 2 windows arranged on the floor with light coming in from side windows a door in the back.
  • Telephone hanging from broken glass window.
    Surreal treatment to a photo of a broken down antique truck.
    Tree with trunk and branches bent at a right angle.
    High contrast photo of skeletal winter trees and grapevines.
    Grinning otter floating in blue-green water covering his eyes.
    Long exposure of car lights going around a roundabout with a library in the background.
    Otters basketball team getting crazy.
    4 men pose with shovels and native plants ready to go in the ground.
    A semicircle of students arc around the center of the grassy quad with dorms in the background.
    Dozens of people looking up at the camera and waving.
    A fish lies in crushed ice on a wooden deck.
    A fisherman’s hand grabs a wet slippery fish from a bin of fish.
  • Close up of a pile of caught fish.
    Graduates with messages written on their square caps.
    Residence Hall Advisors (RAs) offering calm patient assistance.
    A wall of graduates in black gowns and hats, and 1 with headphones rocking out to music.
    Ambassador Joe Wilson speaks at Cal State Monterey Bay.
    Abstract black and white aerial drone photo looking directly down at crisscrossing field rows.
    Aerial photo after sunset of the City of Marina and all its city lights with the Fort Ord Dunes, Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula in the background.
    Aerial drone photo of expansive vineyards rows of autumn colors at the foothills of the Gabilan Mountains.
    Black and white photo of wine bottles being filled in an assembly line.

Editorial Photography

Steve Zmak’s editorial photography usually has a whimsical veneer over dark subject matter. He wields irony as a weapon for social change, and makes obvious the absurd. From a field scattered with police riot helmets and bowling pins to iconic symbols of the human condition emerging in nature, to caricature reflections of our culture.

“Life can be seen as a comedy or tragedy. I strive for my images to give the viewer the flexibility to see either way.”

Wrecked cars line the bank of a creek with a Monterey County Line sign and cattle.

Dozens of cars that span generations are illegally parked on the banks of the creek along the San Benito County border for erosion control. But in the end, the creek won out and just tumbled the cars about leaving many wrecked, half-buried, and leaking junk into the water supply.

 

Huskies wearing sunglasses.

The members of the competitive husky team at the Kantishna Roadhouse are filled with personality and each have their own custom pair of sunglasses. They are the cool dogs.