Following his introduction to North Carolina's pottery scene while working as a small town newspaper photographer in the 1970s, Stephen C. Compton was on the path to becoming one of the region's top pottery collectors and noted experts on the subject. An eighth generation North Carolinian, Steve's interests include the state's 18th and 19th century earthenware and stoneware traditions, as well as its early to mid-20th century art potteries, and how these traditions inform the work of hundreds of the state's contemporary clay artists today.