Interview with Gary Schneider by Diana Kamin and Marvin Taylor on 8-2-2016
Gary Schneider is a photographer and master printer. With his partner John Erdman, Schneider runs Schneider-Erdman Inc, a photography lab in New York City. Schneider and Erdman were friends of Peter Hujar and Wojnarowicz; both artists printed exclusively at their lab. Schneider processed Wojnarowicz's film and made him contact sheets from 1984 on, and printed all of Wojnarowicz's photographs larger than 16x20 inches after Wojnarowicz began working more explicitly with photography in 1987.
Interview Abstract
Discusses Wojnarowicz working with Peter Hujar’s darkroom after his death: Wojnarowicz used leftover photographic materials, such as stacks of Portriga Rapid paper, and was limited to printing in equipment made for 16x20 prints at the largest [p. 3-4, p.6-9; 05:00-05:15, 9:53-13:15min]; asserts that he did not demonstrate printing techniques for Wojnarowicz and that Wojnarowicz had learned photographic technique and practiced printing previous to moving into Hujar’s loft [p. 6, p. 9; 09:53 min and 15:30-16:30min]; discusses the production of the Sex Series, “the most poetic of our relationship” [p. 11-15, p. 19; 19:57-31:00min., 35:35- min.-37:25min]; discusses collaborative nature of printing for Wojnarowicz and lack of direction Wojnarowicz provided for printing [p. 23-24, 43:35-46:52]; mentions the printing of Untitled (Face in Dirt) for Aperture [p.27-28; approx.. 54:40-56:00min]; asserts that Wojnarowicz was careful about storage and conservation of silkscreen on gelatin silver print works [p. 30; 61:23-62:00min]; lists the services offered by his lab and recalls that for Wojnarowicz they processed film and made contact sheets [p. 38, p. 40; 1:16:50; 1:21:00]
