About Burt Solomon

I have been walking around with a camera hanging from by neck since I graduated high school in Brooklyn, New York in1961. Throughout college, law school and my legal career, I have been making photographs of people, landscapes, cityscapes and other things that have caught my eye and interested me. I make them for myself. For many years, I simply kept my photos in boxes, essentially in a closet, until I was encouraged in 2009 to exhibit 42 of them in a solo show at a local shop (The Framing Mill in Maplewood, New Jersey). Since then, several additional opportunities to exhibit my photo shave come my way.

I have had no formal photographic education but am basically self-taught. When I first started doing photography, my father, a printer by trade and an experienced amateur photographer, showed me how to use his post-World War II-era camera. We set up a dark room in our basement and he introduced me to the world of developing film, using an enlarger, exposing negatives, and developing and fixing prints. He also taught me to mix my own chemicals (which I still do today).

Since then–with rare exceptions-I have been developing my own black and white film and printing my own black and white photos in my darkroom. (Recently, my grand-niece has ably assisted me with film development.)

After this initial exposure to the photographic process, I was on my own. I have taken two brief courses at Chautauqua in New York. After I bought my first digital camera, I also took an introductory digital camera course in the early 2010’s at the Newark Museum.

Since then, I have been fortunate to exhibit my photographs in various venues. My work (some of my black and white gelatin silver “analog” prints only) has been exhibited a number of times. (Some of my color photographs are displayed on my website.) Here is a partial list of photographic projects that I have participated in; my website contains a fuller list.

Artist Statement

I am not constrained by styles, rules or anything other than my own eye and my own sensibilities when making my photographs. Perhaps some of that comes from looking at many photographs over the years, in museums and in my own large collection of photographic books as well as visiting art museums, with an especial affinity for the Impressionists. Those works may well have influenced the way I see and photograph the world, though exactly how, I cannot say.

Although I have taken many color photographs (indeed, often ones that I like), both on film and, these days, digitally, my primary interest remains in making black and white gelatin-silver photographic prints. I continue to do film-and-darkroom photography–despite the world’s having largely turned to digital processes-because I fully enjoy the process, much more than sitting at a computer making digital photographs. After a long career as a practicing lawyer, with many hours spent at a computer, computer photography work pales in comparison with printing in a dark room.

My choice to work extensively in black and white “analog” photography is not anesthetic choice on my part. I have seen digitally printed black-and-white work that, in quality, is not distinguishable from darkroom prints. Probably, my choice to exhibit black and white photos rather than color is an esthetic choice. More often than not, I find that I appreciate the black and white photographs of particular photographers more than their color work. Exactly why I see it that way, I do not know.

The Portfolio Submission Form for the Alfa Art Gallery asked me to say what “drives” me. A friend–an accomplished photographer–was once asked at an exhibit of his photographs why he takes photographs. His answer, which has long stayed with me, was a short “because I must”. Ask me too why I take them and my answer is the same: “Because I must.”

When choosing what to exhibit, though, I seek to reflect something of the sense of awe, beauty, interest and wonderment that I feel when something first captures my photographic attention. Perhaps with a somewhat spiritual or religious sensibility, I like to photograph the order that I see from time to time in our disordered world, an order often overlooked and totally missed in our normal lives.

Through exhibiting my photos, I like to share what I see with the hope of encouraging others to see things that excite them where they least expect it. The unexpected and variable mixture of the things that go into a photograph are all around us. They are wonderful to see and explore.

Visually striking images can be found almost everywhere, if you are alert to them. I have been fortunate in finding them in many places. I see form and composition through my camera lens, record the image on film, and from that create my photographs.

While I will photograph pretty much whatever catches my eye as potentially being interesting when printed (“interesting,” rather than “beautiful,” is to me often the higher compliment for a photograph), my main emphasis has been on street photography and landscapes, both done “on the fly”. With very few exceptions do not I have a preconception of a photo in advance of taking it. Nor do I use a tripod. I see something worthwhile, raise my camera, and press the shutter.

Moreover, generally, my photos are not posed, so my street photography is as I see it, not as I have set it up. I am fortunate in that I seem to be able to compose pretty quickly. And when, in the darkroom, I want to crop or make other adjustments (for instance, burning, dodging, adjusting contrast, reversing a negative, and making a negative print for a visual effect), I am not a purist and I do so readily.

Also, in most cases, I do not give titles to my photographs, other than the place and date they were taken. Photographs should stand on their own. I prefer to look at photos without being directed to a viewpoint about them by a title. I prefer to leave viewers of my photographs with room to form their own perceptions on the same basis and to take from the pictures what they find in them. My own viewpoint is embedded in the pictures themselves.

Email: photogburt@gmail.com

Website: burtallensolomonphotography.com

New Brunswick Art Salon 2025 – Photography: “Beyond the Image: Unveiling Hidden Narratives”

Solo Exhibitions

  • November 6,2009 – December 3, 2009 | Solo Exhibition | The Framing Mill, Maplewood, NJ6 x 7 by SOLOMON
  • December 11, 2010 – December 19, 2010 | Solo Exhibition | Vladek Hall Gallery, Amalgamated Houses, The Bronx, NY Urban/Un-urban
  • April – July 2013 | Solo Exhibition | Derfner Judaica Museum, The Hebrew Home, Riverdale, The Bronx, New York Some Things Seen in Israel
  • April 2015 – Present | Solo Exhibition | Executive Offices, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., New York, New York Israel Seen (In Part)
  • September and October 2017 | Art Lobby, JCC MetroWest, West Orange, New Jersey: Observed in Israel
  • April 2018 | Sutagao Columbian Fusion Restaurant, Maplewood, New Jersey Trees
  • May – June 2023 / Congregation Beth El of the Oranges and Maplewood, South Orange, New Jersey Israel’s 75th Anniversary

Participation in Juried and and Curated Group Shows

  • December 2015–January 2016 | Juried Group Exhibition, 440 Gallery 11th Annual Small Works Show, Brooklyn, New York
  • 3 May – June 2016 | Juried Group Exhibition | The Gaelen Juried Art Show & Sale 2016 | JCC Metrowest, Whippany, New Jersey
  • April 2018 | Annual Photography Auction | Stivers School for the Arts, Dayton, Ohio Invited to contribute a print of his photograph, Geilo, Norway 1972, to the Stivers School for the Arts Annual Photography Auction, 2018)
  • April 2018 | Curated Group Exhibition, Israel at 70 | Waltuch Gallery, Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, Tenafly, New Jersey
  • June – July 2019 | Juried Group Exhibition | The Gaelen Juried Art Show & Sale 2019 | JCC Metrowest, Whippany, New Jersey
  • June – July 2023 / Juried Group Exhibition / The Gaelen Juried Art Show and Sale 2023 / Gaelen Gallery, Leon and Toby Cooperman JCC, West Orange, New Jersey
  • November – December 2023 / Juried Group Photography Exhibition / New Jersey Photo Forum’s 29th Juried International Photography Exhibit / Watchung Arts Center, Watchung, New Jersey
  • April – June 2024 / Juried Group Exhibition / Spring 2024 Art Show / The Pierro Gallery, Baird Community Center, South Orange, New Jersey

Participation in Non-Juried Group Exhibitions

  • January – February 2016 | 1978 Friendship 2016 Art Show | 1978 Maplewood Arts Center ,Maplewood, New Jersey
  • June – August 2016 | Invited Exhibition, “Summer Inspirations” |Theater/Arts Lobby–Roland Exhibition Center, Cooperman JCC, West Orange, New Jersey
  • July 2018/ Annual 1978 Friends Show/ 1978 Maplewood Arts Center, Maplewood, New Jersey
  • October 2018/ Essex County, New Jersey/Parks Photography Contest.
  • October 2024 / Essex Photo Club Group Exhibit / Caldwell Library / North Caldwell, New Jersey

In Print

  • Black and White Magazine, April 2016 Issue – Award in Vintage Photograph category
  • Black and White Magazine, April 2019 Issue – Award in Vintage Photograph category
  • Essex Photo Club – Fall 2024 Newsletter – Featured Photographer in “Member Spotlight”