About

INTERESTS

Craig Shaffer has been a professional journalist, poet, fine-art photographer, and digital artist for 35 years. Entranced by the art and science of visualization, he is keenly interested in image manipulation, special effects, and post-processing using sophisticated graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. He has exhibited widely in the area and has won numerous photography awards. His work also appears on-line at http://www.matrixspace.com, http://www.matrixphoto.smugmug. com.

“I’m seeking an orchestra of diverse associations. As a photojournalist, I look for content, message, and symbolism: socioeconomic, political, cultural, and psychological,” Shaffer says. “As a fine artist, I look for the exotic irony within ordinary experiences, transformed by digital magic.”

RECENT WORK
Several of his source photographs were recently displayed in collaborative assemblage pieces by renowned international artist Sandee Johnson (Brussels, Belgium) in Gallery 24, Berlin in 2005. Other photographs will appear in artwork by Leslye Bloom (Blacksburg, VA) in Digital Collage and Painting paperback by Susan Ruddick Bloom to be published by Focal Press in 2006.

EDUCATION
Shaffer was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1955. He received an Associate of Arts degree from Central Virginia Community College in 1975 and studied photography under Cloyde Wiley. He was graduated from Wake Forest as an English major in 1977, where he also served as editor as The Student literary magazine. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UNCG (1988) on a Randall Jarrell Scholarship. Shaffer also was graduated with a Masters of English and Writing from Hollins University in 1990 following a two-year tuition scholarship.

POETRY
An avid poet, essayist and fiction writer since 1972, Shaffer has published more than 100 poems in Southern Poetry Review, The Greensboro Review, Stroker, Carolina Quarterly, Poet & Critic and many others.

JOURNALISM
His 12-year journalism career as a senior writer, editor, reporter, or photographer included The Roanoke Times & World News, The Winston-Salem Journal, The Burlington Times-News, The Clemmons Courier, and The Yadkin Enterprise. He won 18 prestigious North Carolina Press Association awards for writing and photography. The Associated Press distributed hundreds of his stories nationally and internationally.

SCRIPT EDITING
Shaffer served as script editor/consultant on “Scorpion Spring,” a full-length motion picture (Distant Horizon/Miramax, 1995) starring Matthew McConaughey, Alfred Molina, Ruben Blades, Esai Morales, Kevin Tighe and Miguel Sandoval. The movie premiered at film festivals including Sundance, Toronto, The Hamptons, and the Virginia Festival of American Film.

COMMUNITY
Shaffer is former president of the Blue Ridge Photographic Arts Society (BRPAS) and founder of the Digital Imaging Group (DIG). He serves on the Lynchburg Art Club board and on the Visual Arts Steering Committee for the Academy of Fine Arts. Shaffer is an artist member of Treehouse Studio/Gallery at Riverviews Artspace.

PHOTOGRAPHY

2001-2004 PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS

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001 Lynchburg Art Festival SunTrust Bank Award
2001 Bedford Centerfest Honorable Mention
2001 Lynchburg FAC Area Photography Show Two entries accepted
2001 Lynchburg Art Club Summer Show Group Exhibition
2001 Blue Ridge Photo Show at Sedalia Group Exhibition
2002 Lynchburg FAC Area Show Two entries accepted
2002 Lynchburg Art Club Summer Show Group Exhibition
2002 Lynchburg Art Club Georgia Morgan Show Group Exhibition
2002 The Rainbow Tree Art Gallery Represented artist
2002 Lynchburg Camera Shop One-Man Show
2002 Piedmont Center BRPAS group gallery
2002 Progress Printing Office decoration
2002 Bath County Arts Festival (2) Honorable Mentions
2002 BRPAS Juried Bedford Library Show Honorable Mention
2002 BRPAS Bedford Library Show People’s Choice (1st tie)
2002 Blue Ridge Photo Landscape Show Group Exhibit: Sep-Oct.
2002 Blue Ridge Photo New York Show Group Exhibit: People’s Choice
2002 Kaleidoscope Art Festival Decorative Ventures Award
2002 Bedford Centerfest Festival Award of Merit
2002 Bedford Arts Council “Shades of Gray” Show Honorable Mention
2002 Lynchburg Art Club Holiday Show/Sale Group Exhibition
2002 Lynchburg Fine Arts Center “Silent Auction” Group Exhibition
2003 LFAC Artist Member Gallery Group Exhibition
2003 Onemodelplace.com On-line gallery
2003 Artsig.com On-line gallery
2003 Photosig.com On-line gallery
2003 BRPAS Academy of Music Gallery Group Exhibition
2003 BRPAS “The Light Show” CJMW Gallery Group Exhibition
2003 BRPAS “Summer Exposure” CVCC Group Exhibition
2003 Lynchburg Juried Photography Exhibition , LFAC Group Exhibition
2003 Lynchburg Art Festival Waterworks Award
2003 Academy of Fine Artist; Artist Member Show Group Exhibition
2003 AFA Area Photography Show Group Exhibition
2003 Lynchburg Art Club Holiday Show Group Exhibition
2003 Academy of Fine Arts Art Raffle Group Exhibition
2004 Treehouse Gallery at Riverviews Artspace Group Exhibition
2004 Café 720 Group Exhibition