Gerry Szymanski

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, and nominated each year from 2010-2019), 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, 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).

A Clear Midnight (Orange Glory Café, 2016)

A Glimpse (Bachelor Forum, 2016)

Long Ago and Far Away (Orange Glory Café, 2017)

Pastoral Symphony (Orange Glory Café, 2017; also Hedonist Ice Cream, 2019)

Tell Me the Old Old Story (SPOT Coffee, 2018)

Song of Myself(ie) (Orange Glory Café, 2018)

A Photographer’s Miscellany (University of Rochester Gallery at Art/ Music, 2018)

Will You Seek Afar Off? (Orange Glory Café, 2019)

Unveiled Reflections (Gallery Q/Out Alliance, 2019)

Greek Revival (Orange Glory Café, 2021)

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 lecture on the visit of Jenny Lind to Rochester has been presented to the New York State Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association, the Rochester Public Library, the Rochester Historical Society, and the National Susan B. Anthony House and Museum.

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.”