The Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts

At Work and Play, 2001

Harry Sargous was born in Cleveland, Ohio, into an artistic family comprising singers, instrumentalists, painters, potters and poets, as well as more generally literally gifted people. His interest in photography began at age three by observing his painter/photographer uncle work in the darkroom in a medium which seemed magical at the time. Mr. Sargous pursued a limited interest in photography through high school and college. After entering the world of a profession musician at age twenty-two, his photographic interest burgeoned.

He constructed a darkroom, read all he could lay his hands on about photographic processes, some very old like platinum and palladium printing, and also film development processes requiring his own mixture of chemical ingredients. In 1979 he was very fortunate to study at the Ansel Adams Workshops in Yosemite National park, his only formal training.

The first public display of his work took place in a one man show at the Herbert Ascherman Gallery in Cleveland. Subsequent to that show, many of his photographs were exhibited at the Jane Corkin Gallery in Toronto in a group show. He presented a one man show in Ann Arbor at the Kerrytown Concert House, where he will present another in December and January, 2001-2002. He was accepted twice into the prestigious May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Mr. Sargous has recently converted to a completely digital darkroom (paralleling his interests musically in linking traditional acoustic instruments with computers and MIDI) finding that, though young, this form of photography potentially offers many more possibilities in the creation of photographic prints than do traditional photographic processes. He still utilizes traditional silver technology to an extent, keeping a foot in each photographic world.

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