BIOGRAPHY - EXHIBITION LIST - COLLECTIONS
Born in Buffalo in 1959, Richard Serviss was raised in Penn Hills, a working class suburb of Pittsburgh. He studied photography at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he received the Merrill-Milai-Stanley Scholarship Award. During his education, he realized his interest was in documentary photography rather than the commercial studio photography the school emphasized. Upon graduation, he began work on several documentary styled photo projects while supporting himself as a darkroom printer. Over the years he'd continue to create new photo projects, some of which became decades long studies.
His early work can be seen in the "Streets of Pittsburgh: 1979 - 1986" gallery. During those years he photographed many of the city's neighborhoods, including the North Side, Downtown, Uptown, South Side and Oakland. Though these photographs are by no means an exhaustive study of the city, they do offer an honest glimpse of what the city looked like during those transitional years. The negatives from this photo project are now in Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
Richard moved to southern New England in 1986 to run the darkroom for a professional photo studio. His free time was spent in New York City working on personal photo projects. Most notable are "Visions of New York," a series of darkroom manipulated photographs that were toned and tinted with oils and have a Pictorialist quality to them. Another is "Flowers in the City,” a series of black and white photographs of flowers on city streets with the floral areas hand colored. Prints from both "Visions of New York" and "Flowers in the City" sold in Manhattan galleries and appeared in several group exhibitions.
Richard’s final move was to New York City. Once in New York he found work as a photo researcher and quickly moved into various photo editorial positions. His work history includes photo researcher and photo editor for several renowned photo agencies including the Black Star Picture Agency, Saba Press and Sygma. At one time these photo agencies provided much of the photo content for many of the world’s leading news and feature-based magazines.
For nearly two decades he was a senior photo editor at Scholastic Inc. During this time, he worked on a variety of magazines including Scholastic's New York Times Upfront Magazine, Junior Scholastic Magazine, Choices Magazine and various editions of Scholastic News Magazine. He also spent years doing video research for the company’s online video productions.
Richard feels New York City inspired his interest in natural landscape photography. Living in the Inwood neighborhood of northern Manhattan in the early 2000’s, he was amazed to discover the neighborhood’s park contained the last strands of Manhattan’s old growth forest. Fascinated that a patch of old growth forest survived centuries of urban development, he began photographing remnants of the city’s forests. In a few years he expanded this landscape photo study to include natural landscapes throughout the State of New York. He sees these New York based landscape studies as lifelong photo projects.
Through the years Richard’s photography appeared in numerous group exhibitions. He also served as a board member with the Ward-Nasse Galley in New York City. At one time, Ward-Nasse Galley was one of the longest running artist co-op galleries in the city. During those years, he volunteered to help run the gallery, curated several exhibitions and exhibited his work. Most memorable to him was the September 1996 “City Vibes: With a Touch of Graffiti” group exhibition he curated.
Richard lives in The Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale with his wife Frances and their cats Rosie and Rocky.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS & COLLECTIONS
SENATOR JOHN HEINZ HISTORY MUSEUM
Affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution
Pittsburgh, PA
Entire archive of negatives from the "Streets of Pittsburgh: 1979-1986" photo essay are in the museum's collection.
CYNTHIA BRUNO-GILL COLLECTION
Pittsburgh, PA
Photographs of Shawn’s Place and The BC Club (once located in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood along Fifth Avenue) are in the collection. The exterior photographs of Shawn’s Place (a Lesbian bar) and The BC Club (a Gay bath house) are probably the only known exterior photographs of these establishments.
MICHAEL INGBAR GALLERY
568 Broadway New York, NY
"It's About Real Estate"
Group Exhibition
May 20 - September 30, 2006
Exhibited photos from the "Visions of New York" project.
Also, non-exclusive gallery representation for selected "Visions of New York" prints, a series of darkroom manipulated & hand colored urban landscape photos - 1997 through 2012.
WARD-NASSE GALLERY
178 Prince St. New York, NY
"Metro Art"
Group Exhibition
March 26 - April 17, 1999
Exhibited work from the "Flowers in the City" photo project. "Flowers in the CIty" was series of gritty black & white urban landscapes where the flowers were hand tinted with oil colors. Also, served as a curator and sat on the Board of Directors of this artists run co-op gallery from 1997-2006.
MICHAEL INGBAR GALLERY
568 Broadway New York, NY
"Splendor in the Grass: Central Park"
Group Exhibition
September 10 - October 31, 1998
Exhibited darkroom manipulated & hand colored prints from the "Visions of New York" photo series.
MICHAEL INGBAR GALLERY
568 Broadway New York, NY
"1898 and Still Standing - Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Consolidation of Greater New York"
Group Exhibition
June 11 - August 29, 1998
Exhibited darkroom manipulated & hand colored prints from the "Visions of New York" photo series.
WARD-NASSE GALLERY
178 Prince St. New York, NY
"City Vibes: With A Touch of Graffiti"
Group Exhibition
September 4 - 28, 1996
Curated and exhibited in group exhibition that focused on urban themes. Exhibited work from the "Flowers in the City" photo project.
AGORA GALLERY
560 Broadway New York, NY
"Real/Ethereal"
Group Exhibition
June 1 - 26, 1996
Exhibited darkroom manipulated & hand colored prints from the "Visions of New York" photo series.
WARD-NASSE GALLERY
178 Prince Street New York, NY
"Landscape/Dreamscape"
Group Exhibition
Late Winter 1996
Exhibited large scale photos (30x40") from the "Coney Island at Dawn" series.
WARD-NASSE GALLERY
178 Prince St. New York, NY
"The Creature Feature"
Group Exhibition
January 4 - 28, 1996
Exhibited photos from the "Downtown Dogs and Other Stupid Animals Pictures" project.
WARD-NASSE GALLERY
178 Prince St. New York, NY
"International Salon '95"
Group Exhibition
Exhibited darkroom manipulated & hand colored prints from the "Visions of New York" photo series
June 10 - August 12, 1995
PROVINCETOWN ART ASSOCIATION & MUSEUM
460 Commercial St. Provincetown, MA
"Exhibition of Competition Finalists"
Group Exhibition
May 12, 1995 - June 7, 1995
Exhibited darkroom manipulated & hand colored prints from the "Visions of New York" photo series.
IMAGES GALLERY
3154 Markway Drive Toledo, OH
Toledo Friends of Photography "National Juried Photography Exhibition" - Curated by Peter MacGill
Group Exhibition
October 5 - 31, 1991
Exhibited street photography work.
YERGEAU - MUSEE INTERNATIONAL D'ART
Montreal, Quebec
Exhibited street photography work. Print (A Downtown Frankenstein, NYC") acquired for permanent collection.
1991
HELIO GALLERIES
588 Broadway New York, NY
"International Photography Exhibition"
Group Exhibition
January 8 - 26, 1991
Exhibited street photography work.
CHATTAGRAM PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
Chittagong, Bangladesh
"1st International Photo Contest"
Group Exhibition
March 1990
Exhibited street photography work.
ACADEMY OF ARTS
106 South Street Easton, MD
"26th Annual National Juried Exhibition" - Curated by Dorsey Waxter/Director of Andre Emmerich Gallery/NYC
March 30 - April 28, 1990
Group Exhibition
Exhibited street photography work.
ART CENTER GALLERY
Central Missouri State University
217 Clark St. Warrensburg, MO
"Greater Midwest International V"
Group Exhibition
January 16 - February 16, 1990
Exhibited street photography work.
ZONE ART CENTER
Springfield, MA
"Zone Photography Show" - Curated by Bill Burke
Group Exhibition
November 12 - January 7, 1989
Exhibited street photography work.
VELAR GALLERY
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA
"Memory"
Group Exhibition
February 2 - 24, 1986
Exhibited street photography work.
THREE RIVERS ART FESTIVAL
Art Institute of Pittsburgh Gallery
"1984 Three Rivers Arts Festival Photography Exhibition" - Curated by Lee Witkin
Award Winner/Honorable Mention
Group Exhibition
Summer 1984
Exhibited street photography work.
F-STOP GALLERY
Wood St. Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Group show put together by Art Institute of Pittsburgh photography students
1980
Exhibited street photography work.