Norm Diamond
After a long career as an interventional radiologist, Norm Diamond is now a full time fine art photographer based in Texas. He has studied with Debbie Fleming Caffery, Sean Kernan, Keith Carter, Arno Minkkinen, Aline Smithson, Susan Burnstine, and, from 2013 to the present, he has been mentored by Cig Harvey. In addition to his teachers, he attributes much of his success in photography to his experiences as a physician. In May of 2017, Daylight Books published a monograph of his series What Is Left Behind - Stories from Estate Sales. Prints from this series have been shown at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, the Houston Center for Photography, as well as multiple galleries.
STATEMENT - What Is Left Behind - Stories from Estate Sales
Estate Sales have become a common way for people to dispose of their parents’ possessions after they die or move to assisted living facilities. For over a year I went to several hundred estate sales in Dallas, Texas, where I live. In addition to photographing at the sales themselves, I also bought many inexpensive items that I studied later with better lighting and backgrounds in my home studio.
Several themes have emerged from this work. The stark reality of life’s brevity pervades every estate sale, where children’s toys sit a few feet from wheelchairs. Unique personal possessions tell the often poignant stories of people I never knew and could only wonder about. I also discovered knickknacks that offer fascinating commentaries on the culture and politics of the mid-twentieth century. Every weekend at just about every sale, I saw sadness, irony, history, and humor.
The objects at these sales will find a rebirth of sorts in the homes of their new owners, but also hopefully in these photographs. On a personal note, visiting so many estate sales connected me to my past. I thought of the treasured belongings my parents left for my sister and me. My own mortality came into sharper focus. And I could not help but wonder what my estate sale will look like.
RESUME
Education
MD, Columbia Univ. College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, 1974
BA, Columbia College, New York NY, 1970
Museums and Permanent Collections
1990’s ‘165 Jewish Children from This School’, Dallas Holocaust Museum, later acquired by Museum of the Shoah, Paris, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.
Awards and Honors
Texas Photographic Society, 31st Members Only Show, 2nd Prize, 2018
Texas Photographic Society, 27th International Exhibition, Honorable Mention 2018
Critical Mass Competition, Photolucida, Portland, OR, Finalist, 2015 and 2016
Selected 100 for Review Santa Fe, 2016
Book
2017 What Is Left Behind — Stories from Estate Sales, Daylight Books, published May, 2017
Solo Exhibitions
2018 What Is Left Behind, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2017 What Is Left Behind, Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, TX
Selected Group Exhibitions (multiple prints)
Texas Photographic Society, TPS27, Juror: Kate Breakey, Multiple cities, (3 prints), 2018
Currents Exhibition, Ogden Mus. of Southern Art, Juror: R. McCabe, New Orleans, LA, 2017-18 (6
prints)
The Book Exhibition, ASmith Gallery, Johnson City, TX (4 prints + book), 2017
What Is Left Behind, Curator: Paula Tognarelli, Griffin Mus. Photog., Winchester, MA, (4 prints), 2016
2016 Keepsakes, Juror: Karen Davis, Davis Orton Gallery, Hudson, NY, (12 prints), 2015
Selected Group Shows
Texas Photographic Society, Members Only Show, Juror: Roy Flukinger, Austin, TX, 2018
24th Juried Exhib’n, Griffin Mus. of Photog, Juror: Richard McCabe, Winchester, MA, 2018
Annual Juried Member Exhib’n, Colorado Photog. Art Ctr, Juror: Paula Tognarelli, Denver, CO, 2018
Art214, Dallas Art Month, Multiple Jurors, Dallas, TX, 2018
Still Lifes, Juror: Aline Smithson, South x Southeast Gallery, Molena, GA, 2018
The Curated Fridge, Fall 2017 Edition
35th Juried Member Exhib’n, Houston Center for Photography, Juror: Rebecca Senf, Houston, TX, 2017
Unbound 6, Juror: Gordon Stettinius, Richmond, VA, 2017
Visual Metric, Juror: Paula Tognarelli, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2017
22nd Juried Exhibition, Griffin Mus. of Photography, Juror: Elizabeth Avedon, Winchester, MA, 2016
Night, Juror: Sean Corcoran, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2016
PhotoNoir, Juror: Aline Smithson, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2016
33rd Juried Member Exhib’n, Houston Center for Photography; Juror: Russell Lord, 2016
Forgotten, Juror: Blue Mitchell, ASmith Gallery, Johnson City, TX 2014
Selected Press (What Is Left Behind)
Atlanta Journal Constitution, 2017
Madame Figaro, Beau Livre L’homme objets, June 23, 2017
Texas Monthly, 2017
Dallas Morning News, 2017
L’oeil de la Photographie, 2017
Lenscratch, May 8, 2017
New Republic, 2017
Hyperallergic, 2017
CityLab (The Atlantic), 2017
International Business Times, 2017
Artists Talks
Photostock 2017, Harbor Springs, MI, 2017
Maine Media Bookstore, Rockport, ME, 2017
Interabang Books, Dallas, TX, 2017
ASmith Gallery, Johnson City, TX, 2017
Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, TX, 2017