Wendi Schneider creates hand-gilded photographs—each realized as a unique variant—that explore light, surface, and moments of presence through atmospheric impressions of the natural world. Printed on translucent vellum and Japanese kozo and gilded on the verso with precious metals, the works echo the shifting light in which they were first seen, as light moves across their surfaces.
Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, in a family of artists spanning several generations, Schneider studied painting and art history at Stephens College and Newcomb College at Tulane University. Photography entered her practice in the early 1980s while she was creating reference images for her oil paintings, but the alchemy of the darkroom soon became an artistic pursuit in its own right. Missing the sensuousness of paint, she began working directly on photographic prints, exploring the boundary between representation and interpretation. This early investigation of surface and illusion laid the foundation for a practice in which material, light, and the photographic print are inseparable.
After recreating the 1901 Picayune’s Creole Cook Book for The Times-Picayune, Schneider moved from New Orleans to New York in 1988, where she produced fine art commissions and photography for books, magazines, and advertising. Following her move to Denver in 1994, she incorporated design and art direction into her commercial practice before returning to sustained studio work in 2012. Her collection of turn-of-the-twentieth-century art and objects continues to inform her approach to atmosphere, tonality, and the photographic print as an object.
Her work has been exhibited and published internationally and is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Center for Creative Photography; the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Royal Photographic Society; the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; the Asheville Art Museum; and Auburn University Libraries Special Collections, among others. Schneider is represented by A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans; Arnika Dawkins Gallery, Atlanta; Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston; Etherton Gallery, Tucson; Galería PhotoGraphic, San Miguel de Allende; Rick Wester Fine Art, New York; Vision Gallery, Jerusalem; and Wach Gallery, Cleveland.
Living with a collection of turn-of-the-twentieth-century art and objects—including Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, and early-twentieth-century photography—continues to inform her approach to atmosphere, tonality, and the material presence of the photographic print. She has juried numerous exhibitions and is a member of the Advisory Council at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.
