Jerry Sintz grew up on a farm in Indiana. Education includes a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hanover College in southern Indiana and a master’s degree in wildlife management from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His 33-year career in the natural resources field began with the State of Indiana in 1968 and the last 29 years were with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in New Mexico and Utah. He and his family have lived in Utah since 1979. Retiring from the BLM in 2001 enables him to devote more time to his photography. During college Jerry became interested in photography and over the years it has become a passion with him. He is primarily self-taught.Equipment and Process
He has been involved with color photography for over 30 years. Traditional transparency (slide) film is still used in some formats but recently a high resolution digital camera has replaced 35mm film and some medium format applications. Photoshop is used to optimize the final image and to match what was seen and felt when the scene was photographed. Photoshop is merely another tool and basically replaces the darkroom when making photographic prints but offers tremendous control over the process. Archival ink and paper
is used in a state of the art ink jet printer (giclee) for making photographic prints.
Jerry’s subjects are varied with the majority being the natural landscape, trees and most recently include wild horses. Images vary from the grand landscape to medium to close up
to abstract.
Although Jerry prefers landscapes in the early morning and evening he also will capture his subjects in all kinds of light and weather conditions. Always striving for more of an interpretive rendition of the scene through his personal vision rather than documentary images, his photographs vary from bold bright colors to soft pastels. The wild horse images attempt to capture the behavior and interactions expressing freedom, power, grace and beauty. In all of his images he attempts to capture a moment that a viewer will connect with.
Jerry enjoys taking images of less known areas and subjects. It is particularly rewarding to search for and discover scenes to photograph from his point of view and therefore keep the creative juices flowing. Merely copying a scene the same way someone else has photographed it does not represent the artist’s personal vision but tends to give the image a superficial or trite feeling that is expressionless. The notion of making the ordinary extraordinary is what it is all about and requires the artist to look beyond the obvious and reveal the character of a place. Otherwise, it’s just another pretty picture. Jerry believes that the more familiar he becomes with an area or subject, the more his art will reflect a greater depth of understanding and meaning.
Jerry’s work can be seen at the following galleries: Mountain Colors Gallery (winter only) at Snowbird, Utah; Sagebrush Gallery at Trolley Square in Salt Lake City, UT; Patrick Moore Gallery in Salt Lake City, UT; and M E Style Gallery in Tooele, UT.