Steve Diet Goedde was born and raised in St. Louis, MO and learned the basics of darkroom work and photography from his father, who was an amateur photographer. He moved to Chicago in 1985 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he studied filmmaking and painting. He refused to study photography stating that he had already acquired his aesthetic and visual style.
In 1998, photography publisher Edition Stemmle published a collection of Steve’s Chicago work entitled “The Beauty of Fetish” detailing his fascination with such fetishistic fashion elements as latex, leather, and PVC. Later that same year, he moved to Los Angeles where he started a series of photographs which would later become “The Beauty of Fetish: Volume II” (2001), also from Edition Stemmle.
Slish Pix in 2005 released a career retrospective of his work on DVD entitled “Living Through Steve Diet Goedde”. In addition to the numerous animated photo galleries, the DVD featured interviews, commentary, and behind the scenes footage. In 2009, Steve collaborated with French composer Robert Waechter on a CD entitled “GoeddeConcerto” (ReadyMade Music) in which the ConcertMaster of the Philharmonic of Nice, France interprets 21 of Steve’s photographs into 21 mini-concertos.
Steve Diet Goedde currently lives in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles.