Having majored in art history and minored in classics and archaeology at Loyola Marymount University, Scottsdale, Arizona–based photographer Stokley Berg experienced a pivotal moment in his work when he saw the sculpture Laocoön and His Sons at the Vatican Museums. “It made me think, ‘How can I fill the frame of a photograph to make every part of the image interesting the way this artist did with their sculpture?’” he recalls. With his two main influences being the crystalized motion within Greco-Roman sculpture and the naturalistic compositions of photographer Christine Johnson, a mentor of his based in Phoenix with whom he worked, Berg elevates the everyday world into works of art within a variety of arenas, including sports photography for his alma mater and event photography for the Arizona Costume Institute. “Through my work, I hope to show the beauty of the world around me, and photography allows me to slow down and do so,” he explains. “I take a breath and focus on the interaction of nature, architecture and people, always attempting to perfectly fill the frame.” His approach has informed his philosophy on the purpose behind photography. “Although the camera can be used to create art, it is best held as a tool to view the world differently,” Berg says. “To notice a sharp corner of a colorful building against the rounded edges of a distant white cloud or to lie on my back and watch the sunlight beam through rustling leaves and think, ‘That would make a cool shot’—that’s one of my favorite things in the world.”