Garry Seidel
I was born in the former East Berlin, Germany. My photography has been a unique outgrowth from my childhood experiences in war-torn Berlin, to my familys escape to the West before the Berlin Wall was built, and to my revisit to Berlin to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some images reflect my modern-day impressions of dark historic places; others examine European landscapes, architecture, and abandoned places. My photographic career began when I studied commercial art in New York in the 1960’s. I am essentially self-taught in photography. My pursuing photography grew out of my desire to document and create artistic impressions of my lifes experiences. I grew to love the meticulous, traditional processes of photographing images, as well as developing them into pieces of art. I produce fine art photographs using only traditional film. I photograph each image, using traditional medium and large format cameras and equipment. I use only professional quality negative films. I expose the negative film to the natural light of the scene or subject as it exists, then hand-process the negatives before personally hand-printing each piece utilizing archival, traditional darkroom printing processes. I do all work myself without using assistants. All of my processes and materials meet or exceed museum protocol.
