Nancy Scherl

DINING ALONE In the Company of Solitude

In my series \'DINING ALONE In the Company of Solitude\' I use peopled restaurant interiors as a metaphor for exploring the complexities of solitude and highlighting the experience of being alone in public. ( (The series is also my first monograph, published by Daylight Books, June 2022). The work spans over three decades, culminating during the Covid-19 Pandemic, reminding us all of the fragility of life while bringing our isolation into sharp focus. During the pandemic, restaurants were constructing outdoor dining areas to help patrons feel more comfortable from germs. Paradoxically, our isolation seemed to be exaggerated by these outdoor restaurants –private tents and bubbles, plastic walls and partitions as well as by people\'s reluctance to remove their masks until they ate. World-wide, we all seemed to also be connected by our vulnerability. Perhaps these timeless and timely photographs will serve as a reminder that we came to us terms with our aloneness. The work is deeply personal and was inspired by my mother who lost her husband, my father, when I was a senior in high school. I went off to college being extremely concerned about her since she was now alone. I witnessed my mother’s strength and noticed that her path was always forward. She forged new relationships, while carrying on with her old friendships and family traditions. When there was no one to join her, she had no problem ‘dining alone.’ When I graduated from college, I lived alone in Greenwich Village and was surrounded by many wonderful cafes, restaurants and coffeeshops. I decided to start this series in the 1980’s. Since I saw it as being timeless and universal, it allowed me to freelance, and to work on other projects without time constraints. Solitude is complex and includes solace and joy at one end of it’s spectrum, and loneliness and sadness at the other. Though the work is open to interpretation and viewers will likely project their own experiences to those they are observing, my point of view is that it takes courage to confront oneself and to be alone. I portrayed my subjects as such. If they aren\'t fully engaged by something, they are all independent, strong, and usually are looking upward, outward and forward.

Photographer

Nancy Scherl

Nancy Scherl is a fine art portrait photographer based in New York City. Stylistically, Nancy emulates cinema verité, particularly for her portrait series, often posing her subjects, offering subtle direction, and asking them to “act out” what they experience when they’re in a specific setting. The setting is frequently enhanced with formal lighting to create a specific ambience. Her portraits often invoke metaphor and social commentary. *(Though Nancy blurs the boundaries between pictorial, social documentary and street genres in much of her work, she distinguishes between her staged portrait series and her visual stories –the former being cinema verite’ applying social commentary; the latter being social documentary.)
Nancy completed an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, following her undergraduate studies in documentary and fine art photography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, where she served as a board member from 2016 to 2019, and currently serves as President Emerita and Treasurer, on the board of the Katonah Museum Artists’ Association (KMAA) in Katonah, New York. She is the Founder, and Producer of 'SHOP-TALK' –a round table discussion series about art, produced for the KMAA.
Scherl is the recipient of many awards and has exhibited globally including at FotoNostrum Mediterranean House of Photography, PX3 Espace Beaurepaire, A Smith Gallery, Praxis Gallery, South X Southeast, The Katonah Museum of Art and the Hammond Museum.
Image Titles (Left to Right):
The Extrovert, Diner Doubles, Graveyard Shift, Coffee Break, By the Shore, Morning Glory, Double Trouble, A Rose and Wine, Cafe Villager, A Burger and Fries, Awakening in Tokyo, Villagers Night Out, Banana Pancakes?, Goggles, Double Masks and Worry Beads (Self Portrait), Private Tent, Literary Diner in Solitaire, Diner in the Street, Private Time, Stars-Stripes-Checks, Red Suede Shoes and Velvet Curtains (Self Portrait).

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