In 1974 at age 17, Steven Foster began his career at the Sabbathday Lake, Maine, Shaker Community Herb Department - America's oldest herb business, dating to 1799. There he established three acres of production gardens and managed 1700 acres for the commercial harvest of botanicals.

For thirty-four years, Steven Foster has served as a medicinal and aromatic plant specialist, writer, lecturer, and photographer as well as an international consultant to growers, researchers, and others in the medicinal and aromatic industries. Foster has over 800 photo-illustrated articles in popular, trade, and scientific journals. He serves as Associate Editor for Herbalgram. Steven is the author or co-author of fifteen books. He makes his home in the Ozarks in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Describing her relationship with Steven Foster, Harvard University botanist, Dr. Shiu Ying Hu (emerita), wrote, "Our conversation reminded me of something that Confucius said two thousand years ago: 'In any company of three persons, there must be one who can be my teacher' ...I found in Steven Foster a teacher who could share a profound knowledge of economic botany, particularly in the cultivation and uses of herbs."

Steven Foster has pursued photographic goals since 1976. His first photographs appeared in a book on Shaker furniture in 1977. While living at the Sabbathday Lake, Maine, Shaker Community, he also served as liaison to visiting photographers on assignment for numerous American and European magazines and newspapers. Today, as a specialist in medicinal and aromatic plants, his stock photo files number over 150,000 images in a highly specialized stock niche.