Step into photographer Jerry Siegel’s Chamblee studio, and the pictures filling the space have a commonality: compelling faces. From a child radiating innocence while playing in an Alabama field to an Atlanta drag performer in full glam, there’s a story seemingly lurking behind each expression.
In sharp contrast to the filter-laden, orchestrated selfies populating social media, Siegel captures reality and humanity through a documentary-style lens. And this perspective recently helped land 13 of his portraits of nine artists in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
If you had asked a younger version of the 68-year-old Siegel if his work would one day wind up in the storied institution, he might have laughed. “I was a commercial photographer, but I always loved making pictures of people,” Siegel said as he shuffled through various shots from a career that spans more than 40 years. “I hadn’t thought about being a museum kind of artist.”
Beginning in the mid-1990s, the lifelong Southerner’s passion for shooting photos of the people and places around him began taking on a life of its own, eventually leading to Siegel’s work landing in books, countless exhibitions and museum collections. The Selma, Alabama, native and Art Institute of Atlanta graduate developed two prominent muses: the citizens and environs of his home state’s lower midsection, commonly known as the Black Belt, and visual artists hailing from the South.
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
As for the latter, Siegel continues dedicating a large portion of his time documenting these artists close to home. The National Portrait Gallery acquisition includes Siegel’s shots of subjects such as the late Atlanta contemporary artist Radcliffe Bailey, Alabama quilter Yvonne Wells and South Carolina-born artist Shepard Fairey.
Most professional photographers would cherish such an honor, and its enormity isn’t lost on Siegel. However, his most treasured validation comes from elsewhere. “Instead of somebody saying to me, ‘God, what an extraordinary portrait,’ it means more to me when someone who knows the subject says to me, ‘You captured them the way I know them,’” Siegel said. “To me, that’s probably the highest compliment.”
Harnessing that authenticity is something Siegel has honed for decades. When shooting artist portraits, Siegel said he uses a small kit about the size of a carry-on bag packed with minimal equipment. He prefers opting for natural light whenever possible.
“When you start putting lights up, it very often changes the dynamic,” he said. “It goes from me and the (subject) hanging out and a camera cradled in my hands to something more distracting.”
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
It’s the relaxed art of the hang that allows the sitter to become more comfortable with the process, loosening both shoulders and demeanor, which in turn opens the door for Siegel to seize genuine moments. Another way the affable Siegel says he obtains realism from his subjects is by sharing his true self in the process. An art collector and aficionado, Siegel has a legitimate interest in the work his subjects create, which can spawn in-depth discussions between the photographer and sitter. This mutual respect and shared enthusiasm can prove disarming, allowing everything to fall into place.
“Jerry has an uncanny ability to form relationships with people after just a very brief encounter, and he sets them at ease,” said Mark Sloan, a fellow photographer and art curator based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “I’ve watched it happen. It’s like magic. He doesn’t come at them with the camera at all. He sits down, his camera still in the bag, and he’ll visit for an hour, two hours, just kind of getting to know the person (before taking exposures).”
Sloan witnessed the process beginning in early 2023 when he curated a Siegel exhibition for the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, South Carolina, “At This Moment: Portraits of South Carolina Artists.” Across 10 months, the pair traveled together to Los Angeles, New York and other locales. In all, Siegel photographed 78 artists.
“He’s able to elicit a kind of empathy from his subjects in a way that’s just unbelievable to me,” Sloan continued. “He brings out the humanity in all of his subjects. … Their eyes are smiling, even if their mouths are not.”
Sloan and his wife, photographer Michelle Van Parys, have been friends with Siegel since 2016, exchanging works of art with the Atlantan along the way.
In recent years, the couple began donating portions of their art collection, including paintings, sculptures, photographs and more, to museums, including different branches of the Smithsonian Institution. With several of Siegel’s artist portraits on hand, Sloan said he thought the National Portrait Gallery would be the perfect home and an appropriate recognition for one of his favorite artists.
Sloan secretly approached the National Portrait Gallery in October 2024. After discussions and an extensive review process, the photographs were approved to join the permanent collection by the gallery’s Collections Committee of the Board of Commissioners this May. The images represent different eras of Siegel’s artist portraiture, including photos taken during the “At This Moment” sessions and throughout the making of his first monograph, “Facing South: Portraits of Southern Artists.”
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
“The acquisition of Jerry Siegel’s photographs of southern artists supports the National Portrait Gallery’s ongoing effort to expand its representation of southern portrait subjects as well as southern photographers,” said Ann Shumard, the National Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of photographs.
Siegel said he was thrilled when Sloan revealed the news, and not only grateful for the couple’s generosity but for believing his work belonged in its esteemed new home. However, it may take some time before Siegel’s photographs are displayed publicly.
The first priorities, according to National Portrait Gallery collection manager Casey Magrys, are to make sure new acquisitions like Siegel’s are properly cared for, safely stored and made accessible to the public.
“Before a work can be fully integrated into the collection, it undergoes rigorous cataloging, examination and research to ensure that it is accurately documented and preserved according to best practices,” Magrys said.
At that point, a piece of art may be installed in the museum’s permanent collection galleries, considered to appear in future temporary exhibitions, lent to other institutions or made accessible to scholars and researchers.
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
Credit: (Courtesy of Jerry Siegel)
In the meantime, those interested in Siegel’s work can schedule a viewing at Spalding Nix Fine Art gallery in Buckhead or at Siegel’s studio at Urban Art Collective.
On Sept. 4, the exhibition “Jerry Siegel: Uncommon Lens” opened at the Paul R. Jones Museum at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, featuring Siegel’s artist portraits, including Atlanta creatives Amalia Amaki and Fahamu Pecou.
When onlookers view Siegel’s portraits, he is sometimes asked to name his favorite. Although he’s photographed Jasper Johns, Jimmy Carter, Hank Aaron, Jane Fonda, Colin Powell and myriad other famous and not-so-famous faces, his prized subject might just be a child of a former neighbor, caught on film celebrating a first birthday.
“It’s great to have photographs in museums, and they get seen occasionally,” Siegel said. “But people live with the family photos I’ve taken. They look at them every day, and they’ll be passed through generations. And that makes me happy.”
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