A Passion for Fine Art Photographs

Gene was born and raised outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where his passion for photography began at the age of twelve; consequently, he began cutting grass to raise enough money for a Canon 35mm range finder camera. Purchasing this first camera enabled his passion for photography to grow.

Gene studied photography including printmaking and art while attending Antonelli. He then met a professional wedding photographer who offered him an internship; as a result, he gained experience in the professional as well as the artistic aspect of portrait and location style photography. At the same time, he began exploring the world around him by shooting with medium and large format black & white film and printing in his home darkroom.

After marriage in 1995, Gene started a portrait studio where he created conventional portraits as well as shooting special occasions. Because of his love for the alternative processes and fine-art printmaking, shooting conventional portraits became unexciting for him. He then started offering portraits created with hand-applied emulsion on watercolor paper. This technique allowed him to convey a unique image he had been searching for all along and with that began his journey into fine-art photography.

Because he resided so close to Philadelphia and New York City, he spent much of his time in these two places photographing and building friendships with other photographers and became greatly influenced by their different disciplines.

In the early to mid 90's, Gene began submitting this style of work to numerous galleries throughout Philadelphia, Pa and New Jersey. He received many rejections; however, instead of being discouraged he used this as a time to reflect on his style of work and diligently worked harder at printmaking, his visualization process, and philosophies. After much work, he started creating images based on his own philosophy - this is when rejection letters turned into acceptance letters.

Much of Gene's past work was based on Realism in portraiture where he completed a series entitled "Age of Innocence". The subject matter for this series comprised individuals who were left to spend their last days in a convalescent home. This was a wonderful experience for him because the individuals he photographed loved the attention; moreover, this heightened their spirits tremendously in a dismal environment.

Many of these prints from the series as well as abstracts and still life images were exhibited in galleries throughout the East Coast in the late 90's. Just when he began exhibiting, Gene and his wife moved cross-country to Arizona where he currently resides. After the move, he stopped sending his work to galleries and infrequently created prints in a small, tiny darkroom. He began working in the graphic and printing field where he gained much of his experience in digital image creation and page layout. After this brief detour from actively showing his work in photography, his passion for creating was rekindled.

He began creating furniture based on the modern period of the late 50's throughout the early 60's. These pieces are showcased and offered for sale through the sister site modernvibefurniture. Currently, he spends most of his time shooting B&W medium and large format film.