Steven Martin (vitalvisuals)

Steven D. Martin received his B.S. in Business Administration in 1986 only after pursuing studies in music performance and photography first. He received an M.Div degree from the Candler School of Theology in 1989 and served for fifteen years as a pastor in churches throughout East Tennessee. In 2006 he left pastoral ministry to work in film and in human rights advocacy, a journey that has taken him all over the world to work, observe, and learn from the most difficult conflicts of our age.

Steven has produced and directed many documentary films for PBS stations. His first film, “Muslims in Appalachia,” was released to PBS stations just prior to the 9/11 attacks, and being broadcast by 45 stations to over 70 million households in the months that followed, became a significant part of the national discussion about Islam in America. In 2005 he began work on three films on the role of the church in the Holocaust: “Theologians Under Hitler,” “God With Us,” and “Elisabeth of Berlin.” These films have been shown on PBS stations, in film festivals, and in screenings across the United States and Europe.

As motion picture technology shifted toward smaller cameras normally used for still photographs, Steven quietly began reconnecting with his college training a few years ago, deepening his knowledge and experience with documentary photography, art photography, landscapes, architecture, and portraits.

Steven shoots with a Canon 5DmkII, a Canon 60D, a variety of lenses, and chooses to travel as lightly as possible. More and more he finds it difficult to understand the reality around him until he has used a rectangular frame to help him organize it all.