Old Barn Dial ©STEVE PROCKO-ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-PROCKO.COM
A passion for photography at an early age grew into a lifelong body of work for Steve Procko. Armed with his first camera, a tiny Minolta fixed-lens 35mm model, Procko starting snapping shots when he was in his early teens in South Florida. After graduating from high school, he went on to University of Florida where he majored in journalism and communications. With a year of college under his belt, Steve was offered the chance to move into commercial photography and he took advantage of the opportunity, never looking back. Over the ensuing 35+ years, his still photography became a creative outlet, separate from his commercial television production company. He continues to create commercials for clients around the country and his production company launched a TV show “Talkin’ Money Minutes” on over 100 public television stations nationwide at the start of 2019. Prior to the public television launch, the series was awarded an Emmy Award for educational programming, one of four he has received during his career.
Pinstock Lake Blue Ridge ©STEVE PROCKO-ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-PROCKO.COM
Having continuously visited the North Georgia mountains since the early 1980‘s, in 1993 Procko and his wife built a log cabin in the North Georgia mountains along Stanley Creek, splitting their time between Fannin County and Florida. The natural beauty of the area spurred him to go back to his first love, still photography, which he pursued using a large format view camera, the kind you picture taking photos at the turn of the 20th century, before moving to digital cameras in the last ten years. Always moving forward into new endeavors, Steve used this as his springboard into old photo preservation. A member of Fannin County’s Heritage Foundation, he has been involved in digitizing original historical photos of the area, specifically from the post-Civil War era. Surprisingly, and sadly, there is a shortage of original photos to work with. Often, what is found is a copy of a copy thus diminishing the quality of the digital photos.
Moonrise Old Dial ©STEVE PROCKO-ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-PROCKO.COM
One of Steve’s most recent projects is a video series “There’s History Around Every Bend” with an episode titled “The Heritage Bridges of Fannin County” that chronicles a most important facet of Fannin – our bridges, past and present. He is producing more “There’s History Around Every Bend” videos, with six more currently in production, featuring historic subjects that help document our mountain heritage. Procko continues to take photos around Fannin County, chasing the sunset or awaiting a moonrise, to be, as he says, “at the right place at the right time.”
To see more of Steve’s work, visit http://procko.com
Sunset Lake Blue Ridge Dam ©STEVE PROCKO-ALL RIGHTS RESERVED-PROCKO.COM
