Peter Szarmach

I guess you could say my relationship with photography began when I won a raffle prize of a Kodak Instamatic camera at a plumbing show (as my Dad and Uncle owned the local hardware store in a Chicago suburb).
I remember taking that Instamatic to Mexico City and Acapulco on a high school Spanish club trip and shooting all the sights.
As a graphic design student, my love of photography blossomed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Studying photography under Esther Parada and Hans Schaal, I learned how composition, light, color and texture combine to bring about an image that speaks to the viewer.
One of my major early self-assignments was to photograph the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada. I ended up carrying so much equipment that I made it to the press room without a press pass! I was fortunate to have some of those images accepted by a local Chicago gallery.
In my later years, I began to focus on nature where I feel closer to everything. Among nature, I find a meditative state in which to capture nature’s vastness and the details that create visual awe or a wondrous abstract.
As the master photographer Paul Strand once said, “I think of myself as an explorer who has spent his life on a long voyage of discovery.” As ...

BA in Graphic Design, University of Illinois at Chicago

Art Exhibitions
Apr 2017, 87th Annual Exhibition at the San Antonio Art League & Museum (SAALM)–Juried show–Taos Pueblo
Apr 2018, 88th Annual Exhibition at the SAALM–Juried show–Canyon de Chelly #12
Apr 2019, Members Gallery at the SAALM
Sep 2019, "Seeing Through the Lens of the Soul"—group show at Las Almas Gallery
Nov 2019, Oakwell Farms Art Walk
Dec 2019, Holiday Market—group show at Las Almas Gallery
Jan 2020, TEXAS CLAY: 20/20 VISION group show—SAALM–Juried show–Glazed Earth
Feb 2020, Artist’s Vision—Juried group show—Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA—Dusky Clouds
Feb/Mar 2020, Anything Goes—group show—New Braunfels Art League—Dusky Clouds, Rainstorm & Teton Majesty
Mar/Apr 2020, Structure—group show at A Smith Gallery—Juried show—Thermal Abstract #3—Visitors' Award
May/Jun 2020, 90th Annual SAALM Juried show, online ONLY—Rainstorm
Jun/Jul 2020, Shoreline Arts Festival, Virtual Juried Art Show, Shoreline, WA–Rainstorm and Dusky Clouds
Jun/Aug 2020, "Texas"—group show—New Braunfels Art League Gallery, New Braunfels, TX–San Jose Mission
Sep/Oct 2020, National Fine Art Show at the Lincoln Gallery, Loveland, CO—Juried group show—Dunes at Dusk
Oct/November 2020, "ARToberfest"—Juried group show—New Braunfels A...