Artist Statement

My work seeks in a most elemental, quiet, honest and direct manner to express the commonplace of our society and culture. This is similar to the traditions of painters such as Breughel, Millet, Pissarro, Canaletto, and going as far back as some of the earliest depictions of daily life as represented in the Lascaux cave paintings.

Experience

My interest in and passion for photography began in high school. I have been photographing professionally for 44 years. I began as a reporter-photographer for the Perry County Times, a weekly newspaper in New Bloomfield, PA. Following that I worked for the Harrisburg, PA daily newspaper, The Patriot-News, as a staff photographer for four years.

I founded Socolow Photography in 1984 and for the next 26 years I specialized in commercial, advertising, architectural and event photography. After that, I worked for the next ten years at Dickinson College providing visual content for print publications as well as a number of social media channels. I have returned to my commercial work with an emphasis on architectural photography.

Awards

• One of my “Scenes From Civic Life” photographs was recently selected for inclusion in The Photo Review 2006 Competition issue.

• I am a 2006 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Photography.

• In May of 2007 I received the Artist Showcase Award at the “Interactions" Group Exhibition judged by Alison Nordstrom, Curator of Photography at the George Eastman House for The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO.

• I received the 2007 First Place Award in Photography in "Art of the State: Pennsylvania" for a panoramic photo of a primary school classroom in Mata Ortiz, Mexico taken during the course of my Guggenheim Fellowship.