Born in Sheffield in 1967, Iain Stewart studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1985 to 2000 and was a lecturer there for many years. Stewart is represented by The Photographer's Gallery in London and has had a number of exhibitions both there and abroad. Among the group exhibitions that Stewart's work has been included in can be counted In the Shadow of the Shadow at Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark in 2005, Modern Women at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2004 and Face the Camera at the Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery in 2002. His work is held in a number of high profile public and private collections and a monograph entitled An Eventful Year has been published of his work.

Stewart is known primarily for his abstract views of the Scottish landscape as well as his soft paired down seascapes. The interchange between light and time plays an important part in his work, in which he often makes use of long exposures. Such technique is visible in the triptych by Stewart in the Channel 4 collection. Entitled Rhythm and made in 1997, the three photographs appear like washes of blue watercolour, each photograph though subtly different possessing the same sense of calm, as if time has been slowed down.