Steve Ozone | Forty Years of Portraits

Steve Ozone | Forty Years of Portraits

An exhibition of portraits by photographer Steve Ozone.

Traffic Zone Gallery presents Forty Years of Portraits, an exhibition of photographs by Steve Ozone. From the start of his career photographing high school marching bands to his work as an advertising photographer, Ozone has made portraits of people. This Traffic Zone exhibition shows the progression of his work over the past forty years including images of people from babies to adults in both black & white and color.

Artist Statement

As a young man, my father was imprisoned with his family along with 110,000 others during World War II, based solely on the fact that they were of Japanese descent. When my Japanese father married my Chinese mother in 1951, my mother’s family refused to attend the wedding, so recent were the wounds of Japanese occupation of China in World War II.

Nonetheless, through my parent’s partnership I was born into a life of relative privilege. Growing up in white suburbia I had all the advantages and opportunities my Caucasian neighbors enjoyed, such as the American Dream of a secure home, the expectation of going to college and obtaining a good job. Yet, my Asian-ness set me apart, a characteristic that continues to define me as different.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, my upbringing shaped my worldview through that lens of white suburbia. As I look back through these portraits I’ve made over the years, I believe I was searching for something through my photography…I was searching for my identity. What was I?  Asian on the outside and white American on the inside. With this inner conflict, I attempted to put my heritage aside, both in my work and life. After all these years I’ve come to embrace my ancestry, which has led me to be curious about the stories others have in their pursuit of the American Dream, and has greatly expanded my work.

– Steve Ozone

Artist Biography

Steve Ozone is a photographer and filmmaker with a studio practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Ball State University in Indiana, with a B.A. in Photojournalism. A former commercial photographer, he exhibits both locally and nationally. His work addresses issues of immigration, food, and culture. Along with partner Bill Kubota, he is co-producer and co-director of the documentary film The Registry, about Japanese American men recruited by the U.S. Army from internment camps to be interrogators and interpreters in the Pacific. The Registry is available for download or rental on Amazon Prime. His latest photographs can be seen on the outside of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Silver Ramp featuring immigrants of Minnesota from Kenya, Syria, Mexico, Japan, Poland, and Croatia.

Mission Statement

Traffic Zone Gallery is operated by Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art. TZCVA supports the work of mid-career professional artists with high-quality, affordable studios and the engagement of audiences with gallery exhibitions, open studio events, art classes and workshops.

Gallery Hours

Monday - Friday 9 am - 5 pm

Saturday 9:30 am to 7:00 pm

Sunday 9:30 am to 5:00 pm and by appointment. 

Free and open to the public

Image: Steve Ozone, My Father, 1982, Archival Pigment Print, 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 in.


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