Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: December - 2022 | Photograph By: Gil Stose

There’s a reason we celebrated the vision and artistry of cover photographer Gil Stose 20 years ago. We’re still enraptured by his talents.

As we come to the close of the Laurel’s 20th anniversary year, we’re excited to revisit the 2002 cover of internationally-renowned photographer Gil Stose. This cover image is a classic example of the beauty, style, and essence of regional mountain living. It’s his delight and his job to capture the soul of architecture and design.

Gil is one of those artists who has a sense of the aesthetic fused to his DNA. While he prefers to be called a craftsperson, his eye for art/design is undeniable. He simply knows when balance, texture, line, form, shape, and spatial congruity coalesce in divine harmony.

So it is with this roomful of light and shadow. He, in teamwork with the room’s interior designers, chose the ultimate viewpoint for his shot. A textural variety of wood, glass, stone, textiles, and elk antlers complements the monochromatic reddish brown color scheme with a tinge of neutralized green and soft pale patterns. Gil says the designer’s choice was, “To soften the overall look with a specialized lens filter. It gave the room a relaxed, mountain feel.”

The POV invites us, the viewers, to follow the abundance of architectural lines from almost any starting point. Let your eye-track the rug lines. They move us to the back of the space, then up the vertical lines of the French doors. They sweep us left to right, then up to the ceiling beams and back down to the fireplace stonework lines and antlers, which invite a gaze toward the chandelier, then drop us back down into the room to our starting place.

One of the factors that separates winning photographs from ordinary snapshots is capturing the contrast of deep darks with stunning light. Add to that a wide variety of gradients in-between. In this photo, the dark fireplace interior and shadowy nooks balance the lit chandelier and pale-colored pastel fabrics. The combination shows off Gil’s skill at presenting a story, a feel, an essence. It’s one thing to come prepared with all the usual tools and talent to make a good photo. But when you have the heart and eye of an artist, good becomes great. This is why a commercial photographer like Gil is in constant demand. His artistic abilities move him to an exceptional level.

This photo was shot with a 4×5 camera before digitals were in everybody’s hip pockets. For Gil, and many photographers, the 4×5 was/is the pro’s choice. Prior to the final snap, he shot Polaroid tests for set-up, light, etc.

Gil says, “I have done this for 30+ years. It’s second nature. I’ve always treated the small job as seriously as the big one.” Locally he’s filled Laurel Magazine with hundreds of commercial shots for On the Verandah, Wolfgang’s, Old Edwards Inn, Blackrock, and more. He’s sold scores of architectural, real estate, commercial, and editorial photos near and far. And, while he nails every shoot for his clients, he always makes time for that one soul-satisfying shot… just for him.

Not bad for a guy who got his start in England (BBC) in movies and television, working in 60+ countries. He brought his international background and phenomenal skills to the states, settling in Highlands. architecture, interiors, food, product, and aerial photography

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For more information, visit Gil’s website, https://gilstose.com, or call him at (828) 506-9376.

Related Reading

A Cover That Still Resonates Two Decades Later

What makes this particular anniversary feature worth revisiting is not just nostalgia. It's a reminder that strong architectural photography doesn't age the way trends do. A well-composed image of a well-designed space holds up decades later, because it was never chasing a passing style in the first place, it was capturing light, proportion, and materiality, qualities that remain relevant regardless of what year a photograph was taken.

Two Decades of Evolving Technique

Photography technology has changed dramatically since that original 2002 cover was shot, from film to digital, from single exposures to bracketed HDR blending, from darkroom printing to modern color grading software. What hasn't changed is the underlying discipline: understanding how light moves through a space over the course of a day, knowing which angle best communicates a building's proportions, and having the patience to wait for the exact moment when all of those elements align.

Why Long-Term Publication Relationships Matter

A twenty-year relationship with a single publication is rare in any creative field. It reflects consistency, reliability, and a body of work strong enough to keep earning a place in the magazine's pages issue after issue. For photographers building a career in architecture and design, relationships like this are often more valuable long-term than any single standout assignment, because they represent an ongoing platform rather than a one-time opportunity.

What This Anniversary Feature Represents

Being selected as the subject of a magazine's own anniversary retrospective is a different kind of recognition than being commissioned for a new assignment. It reflects a publication's own editorial judgment that a piece of work from two decades ago remains worth revisiting and celebrating today, which says as much about the enduring quality of the original photography as it does about the magazine's own history and standards.

Twenty years on, the lesson for photographers and design professionals alike is straightforward: images built on genuine craft and a real understanding of light and space don't just document a moment, they hold their value and their relevance far longer than anyone shooting them at the time might expect.

That's the real takeaway from revisiting a cover this far after it was first published: quality endures, and it continues to open doors long after the original assignment wrapped.

Twenty years from now, the same will likely be true of the work being shot today.