Steve Plattner

A native of Cincinnati, Steve Plattner was trained as a photographic historian but now concentrates on photographing landscapes, the American South, vestiges of Adena and Hopewell cultures in the Ohio Valley, and “visionary” artists and their environments. 

Plattner has written two books and several articles concerning photographic projects led by Roy E. Stryker—the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Standard Oil projects from the 1930’s and ’40’s, and the Pittsburgh Photographic Library and Jones & Laughlin Steel project from the early 1950’s. With former ICP Director Cornell Capa he curated “Roy Stryker: Photographs from the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Photographic Project, 1943–1950,” which opened at ICP in New York and toured museums across the U.S. for several years. 

In 1978 he served as the Acting Chief Photographer for the Minnesota Historical Society, where he “did time” in the Minnesota State Penitentiary at Stillwater (not as an inmate—but on a two-day photographic assignment). He was the first professional Curator of Photographs for the Cincinnati Historical Society. He has had one-person shows at the University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Bruce Gallery at Edinboro University, Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas, Off-Ludlow Gallery in Cincinnati, and the University of Cincinnati’s Meyers Gallery. 

Plattner’s photographs can be found in the collections of the University of Louisville Photographic Archives, the Minnesota Historical Society, and numerous private collections. His “Persistence of Vision,” a portfolio of 50 images of American visionaries can be found in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.