With their soft edges and hazy tones, the images of American photographer Robert Stivers speak to us from a dreamscape, from a place that evades the machinations of left-brain reasoning and speaking. They call the subconscious to rise to the surface. Like an alchemist, Stivers, a former dancer and choreographer, translates the lines, form and movement of dance into his still images, all of which he develops himself, giving them life in his darkroom.

Robert Stivers received his B.A. at the University of California, Irvine (1975), his M.A. at New York University (1981), and has exhibited internationally since the early 1990s. He has five published monographs, starting with the eponymous Robert Stivers: Photographs (1997) and continuing on with Listening to Cement (2000), Sestina (2003), Sanctum (2006), and The Art of Ruin (2015). His work is in major collections such as the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, France), the Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, United Kingdom). He currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, California.