MALTESTE

An artist born during the sixties, a Canadian fine art photographer, Large Scale Wall Art Consultant and environmentalist with more than 35 years of experience with various photography techniques and analog optical filters for his "in camera photography".

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Best known for his color immersive and extensive large size landscape photography artwork of wildlife, American southwest, Africa and Canada, often rendering mountains, waterfalls, and sunset sunrise and also sometimes depicting dramatic natural phenomena that he sees during his photography expedition.

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EARLY LIFE

Born in quebec, he was attracted to the art world from the beginning of his early life. He did his first-hand drawing before he could walk and would bring pencils & paper on family vacation anywhere they would travel. He had a few friends, but his family in Chambly provided ample childhood activities. He had no patience for games or team sport but took the beauty of nature at an early age. He completed his Arts degree at CEGEP Old Montreal & Bachelor at University du quebec in Montreal. He is an autodidact Artist & photographer, learning mostly through a lengthy scientific method. In 1984 he changed his art medium from drawing and painting to black and white photography after learning a few tricks from his older brother using a Pentax ME Super.

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APPROACH 

The purpose of his introspective photo-art is to reveal positive emotions and well being through the sublime beauty of nature. Humanity if represented, is depicted as accessory or minuscule in comparison to the greater exquisite beauty & reality of nature.

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EARLY YEARS TO PRESENT

In April 1984, MALTESTE began experimenting with darkroom using Ilford black and white film and photo paper. He later made his first long exposure color photograph of an F1 sports car using Fuji Velvia slide film. He began digital photography in 2009 with a top of the line newly acquired Nikon D3X camera. In 2010 he began manual digital stitching for panoramic photography and learned about GIGA-UHD giant format photography during the same period. Since 2014 he has a folding Plexiglas car roof tent (Autohome) mounted on the top of his car to allow more freedom during his adventurous photography expeditions.

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TECHNIQUE

He only shoots "in camera" with a Nikon digital camera using exclusively tilt and shift lenses and a large collection of neutral optical filters. He shoots only in natural light conditions and demonstrates a highly methodical approach in his photography. For perfect planes of sharpness & absolute photo accuracy, he uses an old view camera technique called the Scheimpflug principle. His technique emphasizes both sharp and deep focus (sometimes called straight photography), a more realistic approach that relies more heavily on sharp focus, heightened contrast & accurate exposure. He emphasizes the use of long exposure in natural light witch creates sharp details combined with a painterly effect on a wide range of focus. Pre visualization is his most important technique, "visualizing" each image before taking it toward the goal of achieving altogether the aesthetic, intellectual, spiritual and mechanical desired effect.  His composition & perspective are drawn from ultra-low to center vantage point. This immersive position enables the viewer to encounter scenes encompassing low, center, top & all periphery in absolute perfect focus, witch is ordinarily totally beyond reach altogether.

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STYLE

His style is based on a carefully detailed Expressionism & romanticism photography style with a slight presence of soul and emotions and a glowing lighting effect, sometimes called Luminism. He is best known for his calm, serene and high impact lifelike color photographs and the large size and overall quality of his PIXEL-ARTS2d photo paper prints.

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GIANT-SIZE

He is able to produce his photo artwork in sizes exceeding 60x180 feet (18.25m X 54.85m).

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PRINTING PROCESS

Each artwork is meticulously printed on PIXEL-ARTS2d photo paper, which increases the dynamic range, tonal values, light sensitivity and the glow of the artwork while helping accentuate the vibrant ultra-lifelike contrasts and colors. For any high quality and discriminating seeker, It is one of the absolute best printing process currently available.