Established as a pianist and teacher in the Berkshires since the late 60s, Myron "Mike" Schiffer has a history of exploring the avant garde. Prior to living in the area, Schiffer lived and worked in New York City, studying with John Mehegan and Hall Overton as well as playing, teaching and hanging around the fringes of jazz.
Fascinated with music and the visual arts since childhood, Schiffer enrolled in photography at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Working in black and white at the time, he was most notably inspired by Richard Avedon's fashion photography. Once introduced to color, he was deeply moved by the mystical color fields of Georgia O'Keefe and Mark Rothko and considers this work his strongest influence.
After focusing purely on his musical career for most of his life, he's now fulfilling his dream of indulging his interest in photography which he started to explore in the 1970s. For the past several years he's been busy exhibiting his work at galleries, frame shops, Kimball Farms retirement community, the North Adams Open Studio show and Castle Street Café.
His current Motion Capture Series is a minimalist expression of color, light and space, revealing the influence of musical improvisation. The method he employs for this series is improvisational movement of the camera, capturing light sources. Schiffer's graffiti and urban scenes follow along similar lines, capturing unexpected images.
His website showcases ever-expanding galleries of many subjects, including Urban Scenes, Found Textures, Graffiti, and the World of Nature. A small selection of Schiffer's miniatures can be seen at Local at the Lenox Common Plaza on Rte. 7, and at the Red Lion Inn Gift Shop in Stockbridge, MA. His most recent video slideshows, "Interior Views" and "Motion Capture Slideshow", are accessible on YouTube. For more information please contact the studio at 413-637-2659.
His music can be heard at www.mikeschiffer.com
