Tom Zimberoff - Maestro! Photographic Portraits September 3, 2011

"A melody, vibrant in the mind of a composer," says Zimberoff, "lies silent on a sheet of paper, a cipher of lines and dots and scratches of ink, until a conductor, in the darkness of an auditorium and in the company of his own instrument, the orchestra, renders those notes into music that the audience can hear. A photographer working alone in a darkroom sees an image with his mind's eye. With his guidance it undergoes a metamorphosis to emerge as a print that the viewer can behold and admire. No two performances sound alike, and no two photographs look exactly alike." However, Zimberoff felt that all the portraits of conductors he had ever seen looked too much alike, stereotypical portrayals of the tuxedoed genius making strange faces while waving a baton. Working intimately with his subjects, Zimberoff developed a personal and individual depiction of each conductor's character beyond the podium.