Craig Stocks, Photographer

Art was always a fascination for Craig Stocks. Becoming interested with cameras in high school and having an uncle who was a photographer, Stocks became very intrigued with photography. He was not always the famous photographer he is now. He started off in photojournalism, first his high school year book and then as a staff photographer for the Pekin Daily times in 1971. Struggling as most artists do for more money, he took a job in 1975 with a school portrait studio. The struggle continued, so Stocks attended Bradley University where he got his degree in Mechanical Engineering and continued on to work for Caterpillar, Inc. for 30 years. After retirement, he got to go back to what he loved doing most; photography. Craig describes himself as an old-fashioned, modern, independent photographer, being that he believes the purpose of photography is prints, but he still is much involved in digital technology and doing it on his own.