Member Profile: Jill Gewirtz

closeI am a native New Yorker and have done some form of art, be it music, photography, jewelry making, since I was a child. I grew up in the 70's, educated at Little Red in NYC, which cultivated my artistic spirit and talent. I find myself reflecting on early times with fondness and appreciation, as it was those teachers who shaped me the times that influenced me. My father owned and worked in color labs in the 60’s,70’s, and 80’s. He developed prints for Scavullo, Meyerowitz, Avedon, Hiro and other pioneers in the photography field. I was surrounded by photography as an art form early on, even before I started taking photographs and developing film and prints in B&W myself. As an artist, I take to new techniques/art forms and keep pushing myself, which is an effort that continues evolving. Over the years in photography, I've been drawn to multiples of objects, be it the sense of infinity and permanence. Perhaps, it is through loss that the sense of infinity is appealing, as with infinity, one never runs out. I’ve done photo construction out of my own photographs, which is something I did in early childhood, but with wrapping paper. I'm also experimenting with xerox transfers, rock collages, and transfers on mirrors. I've been drawn to alternative photography, be it polaroid transfers, emulsion lifts, cyanotypes, in alternative techniques, one transfers the straight photo into something more surreal. Photography captures one moment in time, and what is appealing about art is that no matter what your age, you can continue to do artwork, throughout your lifetime. In taking photographs, there is a thrill in capturing those moments in time. I am drawn to surreal art, and perhaps in using alternative photography, I am able to recreate that blurred line between reality and fantasy. There is something to mastery over techniques. I'm self taught. I reflect upon shifts in my photos over the years. In my early years, I was drawn to developing film and printing black and white images. During my 20's I started experimenting with polaroid transfers through trial and error. In my 30’s, I have experimented with transfers be it Xerox transfers, Inkjet transfers. Once I got a digital camera, my focus was more on color photography. Recently, I've had photos in the Museum of the City of NY, Alexandria Museum, Marin Museum of Art, Marietta Cobb Museum, Griffin Museum, Katonah Museum, and Masur Museum of Art. I have a photo in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of NY.