Garry Geer was born in Detroit, Michi­gan, in 1944 on the day of FDR’s fourth elec­tion. In 1962 he picked up a cam­era and, basi­cally, he has never put it down since. In 1970, he arrived in Rochester, NY to attend the School of Pho­to­graphic Arts and Sci­ences at Rochester Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy, where he earned a BFA degree. This was fol­lowed by a MFA degree from the Col­lege of Fine Arts, Exper­i­men­tal Stu­dios, at Syra­cuse University.

Since then, Garry has resided in Rochester, mak­ing his liveli­hood as a com­mer­cial pho­tog­ra­pher. From 1981 through 1986, he and his wife Anne lived in Man­hat­tan, pur­su­ing their respec­tive careers. Upon their return to Rochester, Garry con­cen­trated his pho­to­graphic efforts on the cor­po­rate world, doing exec­u­tive por­trai­ture, pub­lic rela­tions cov­er­age, edi­to­r­ial illus­tra­tion, and prod­uct photography.

I have been tak­ing pic­tures since I was a child. I have been mak­ing images since my late teens. The com­mon ele­ment in most of the shots I cre­ate is peo­ple. I enjoy col­lab­o­rat­ing with them to pro­duce a visual story. People’s faces, body ges­ture and envi­ron­ment ren­dered with deci­sive light­ing make for respon­sive imagery. We all have our his­to­ries. I see it as my respon­si­bil­ity to sum them up in a photograph.

Some­times the chal­lenge lies in cre­at­ing pho­tographs with­out peo­ple. Again, light­ing and what you can elim­i­nate from the scene are what tell the story so directly. It is sim­i­lar to sculp­ture. You have to real­ize the poten­tial by show­ing the essence of what is to be depicted.

Finally, it is about fun. You can work hard and con­cen­trate, but it does not have to be a joy­less expe­ri­ence. I try to bring out the fun in a project for the sub­ject, the client, and myself.
All per­sonal work is avail­able as stock photography.