Gerry Szymanski is a commercial and fine art photographer who specializes in portraits. Honored four times with the City Newspaper's reader's poll as Best of Rochester Local Photographer (2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014, nominated each year from 2010-2019 and again in 2025), he is a familiar presence in Rochester musical and visual arts circles.
Current and past clients include the Bachelor Forum, Bio-Optronics, Crossbridge Financial Services, East Ave. Dental, Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library, George Eastman Museum, Hedonist Chocolates and Ice Cream, ImageOUT Film Festival, Kroll Law Firm, Lululemon Athletica, National Susan B. Anthony House and Museum, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Strong Museum of Play, Trillium Health, and the University of Rochester.
His portraiture, food photography and environmental images have appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Country Living, Dessert Professional, Imbibe, Downbeat, POST, (Rochester) City Newspaper, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester Business Journal, and South Wedge Quarterly, among other publications.
Musical clients have included: Cordancia Chamber Orchestra, Curious Flights Chamber Ensemble, Eastman School of Music, First Inversion Chorus, International Viola Congress, International Society of Bassists, International Trombone Festival, Pegasus Early Music, Publick Musick, Vision of Sound Music and Dance, and Voices Chamber Choir.
Gerry has also mounted large solo photography shows:
Play of Light (Orange Glory Café, 2006)
Sacred Fire (Orange Glory Café, 2010)
Passing Stranger (Orange Glory Café, 2011; also Flour City Bread Co, 2011)
Cloudage (Orange Glory Café, 2012; also Starry Nites Cafe, 2015)
Canis lupus familiaris (Orange Glory Café, 2013; also Equal=Grounds Coffee House, 2013; also Rochester Public Library, 2014; also Starry Nites, 2015)
Behold This Swarthy Face (Orange Glory Café, 2014; also Hedonist Ice Cream, 2014; also Roc Brewing Co., 2014)
My Picture Gallery (RIT's Gallery R, 2014)
The Cocktailians (Orange Glory Café, 2015; also Good Luck Restaurant, 2015).
At Home at the End of the World (MUCCC Gallery, 2016).
Man About Town (Gallery Q / Rochester Rainbow Union, 2026)
Trained in music and library science, Szymanski is a lecturer in the Department of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music, and manages the 100,000 item collection of sound recordings at the Sibley Music Library. He is on the teaching staff of the Photography Department of the Flower City Arts Center and has given lectures in film music and photography at the Eastman School of Music, St. John Fisher College, SUNY at Brockport, Monroe Community College, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
His articles and reviews have been published in NOTES, Music References Services Quarterly, and Rochester Insomniac. He is also an award-winning composer and filmmaker, and manages the Out Alliance Library. He was recently co-producer of two fund raising concerts: “The Nightingale in Rochester,” and “Benefit Concert for the Grand Orgue at Notre Dame de Paris.”
He has lectured extensively on the local visit of Swedish singer in 1851: "The Nightingale in Rochester: Jenny Lind Visits the Flour City"
- Brighton Memorial Library (2026) - Rush Public Library (2025) - Webster Public Library (2025) - Greece Public Library (2025) - Ogden Farmer’s Library (2025) - Pittsford Community Library (2025) - National Susan B. Anthony House and Museum - Rochester Public Central Library (2017) - Rochester Historical Society (2011) - Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word (2011) - New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at SUNY Fredonia (2007)
He has also lectured extensively on other musical, photographic, and history-related topics:
- Kate and Maggie Tap a Table: The Sisters Fox & Their Local Legacy - South Wedge Planning Committee - Ellwanger Estate (2026)
- Home of the Spiritual Telegraph: Rochester at the Intersection of Science and Belief - Parma Public Library (2025)
- Music, Magic, and the Daguerreotype - Pittsford Community Library (2025)
- Walt Whitman's Natural World / Walt Whitman: Influencer of an Artistic Life - Genesee Country Village and Museum (2025)
- The Hour for Thee and Me: An Exploration of 19th c. Romantic Friendship - Genesee Country Village and Museum (2025)
- Home of the Spiritual Telegraph: Rochester at the Intersection of Science and Belief - Rochester Museum and Science Center Council (2025)
- Dental Diversions, Or, Two Doctors who Tinkered with More than Teeth (Photography and Telegraphy) - Ontario Historical Society (2025)
- From Bayard (Taylor) to Bayard (Rustin) -New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at University of Toronto (2024)
- From Bayard (Taylor) to Bayard (Rustin) - St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Penn Yan (2024)
- Leo & Leo Make Some Film: The Musical Story of Kodachrome - New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at Cornell University (2022)
- Kodak Moments from the Life of Rochester's Greatest Music Lover (George Eastman) - New York State / Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at the Eastman School of Music (2021)
- Rob Roy - Annual Meeting of the Music Library Association - virtual (2021)
- Rota, Verdi, and the Music for “The Leopard” - New York State / Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at Nazareth College (2017)
- A Ride ‘On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe’ - New York State / Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at Hamilton College (2011)
- Angels, Postcards, and Affairs of the Heart: an interview with Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich - recorded for the New York State / Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at the University of Toronto University (2006)
- Agincourt: A Battle, A Carol and Shakespeare's “Henry V" - New York State Ontario / New England Chapter of the Music Library Association at Vassar College (2005)
- Telegraphs and Tunes: The Sibley Family Legacy - New York State / Ontario - New England Chapters of the Music Library Association at Eastman School of Music (2004)
- Fit for a Queen: Music for the Coronation of Elizabeth II - New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at SUNY Potsdam (2002)
- The Early Film Music of Franz Waxman and "Bride of Frankenstein" - New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association at Syracuse University (2001)
