Vaughn Wascovich grew up in a dying steel town surrounded by hills. The steel mills were the lifeblood of the town… even as they were closing, family and friends would say it was a good life, a good living. By the time Wascovich would have been old enough to work there, he already knew he never would. He went on to college and studied art as an undergrad. No one could understand what sense that made, sometimes even he couldn't. Life in the mills would have been back-breaking, but to him, art was always the hardest thing he could imagine doing.
When Wascovich stopped doing commercial work to concentrate on art, he reconnected with his interest in landscape and how it affected him. He wanted to see things for what they are and for what they were, wanting to see the depth of a place. And he wanted to tell those stories. Within those stories of place, though, He knew that he also takes pictures because he wanted to find out where he was in the world… how he was situated. He uses his cameras to try and understand that.
Vaughn Wascovich received his BFA from Youngstown State University. After several years in advertising and working as a freelance photographer, he returned to school to earn his MFA at Columbia College in Chicago. He currently lives and works from Commerce, Texas where he is an Associate Professor of Photography.