Sherwood Samet

Darkroom to Digital: Photographs

Here is a statement from Sherwood:

“I grew up in northern New Jersey and enlisted in the Navy at age 17 rightout of high school. The war ended shortly after I enlisted, so I never saw active combat. I first came to the Poconos in the summer of 1953 while a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania to serve as a junior intern at the General Hospital of Monroe County (now Pocono Lehigh Valley). After completing a residency in Ob-Gyn, I returned to the Poconos and set up my practice on Crystal Street in East Stroudsburg in 1959, becoming the first Ob-Gyn in the county.

My father was an avid amateur photographer, but despite his urging, I did not become interested in photography at that time. In the 1970’s a friend invited me into his darkroom to process film, and my interest in photography began.

Having been born almost a century ago, I have been witness to the evolution of photography from the darkroom to the digital age. I am mostly self-taught, although the works of Ansel Adams, Walker Evans and Minor White inspired me. They were able to previsualize what they wanted to depict and by manipulations both in-camera and in the darkroom achieved their results. Today we can more easily alter our images in “post-processing” thanks to the digital evolution of photography.

The images in this exhibit span almost 50 years, with some taken as recently as a few months ago. They have all been changed in some manner using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and others. My goal is that you, the viewer, enjoy the final image, but be unaware of the many alterations. During the pandemic I took multiple on-line courses to hone my skills in post processing, and during that time became interested in floral photography. More recently, I’ve learned how to make accordion books as a way to present my flower images.”