Portrait taken by Workshop Student, Holly Gilbride
Meryl Spiegel is an award-winning Long Island photographer and artist who explores the human spirit and the wonders that surround us. Relentlessly curious, her subjects range from street life to landscapes and seascapes to figurative work that crosses into abstraction. Ten years ago, Meryl began drawing and painting. In her new series, LOOKING AFTER US and FISHNET, she adds a spiritual dimension to her work by hand.
SPLASH—A Response To Climate Change, a Virtual Exhibit, was featured at the Lyceum Gallery of Suffolk Community College during the Pandemic. In 2018, she was invited to exhibit SPLASH at the Venice Biennale 2019—”one of the most prestigious art festivals in the world.” Fountain Play received Honorable Mention from the international Julia Margaret Cameron GALA Awards. In 2016, two of her series, PHANTOMS and SPLASH were awarded Nominees by the Fine Art Photo Awards (FAFA).
Working with digital and medium-format cameras, Meryl's imagery looks more like paintings than photographs. She has exhibited widely on Long Island at a variety of venues including Parrish Art Museum, Art Sites, Ille Arts, Westhampton Performing Arts Gallery, The Islip Museum, St. Joseph’s College, Ashawagh Hall, Southampton Cultural Center, Remsenburg Academy, Quogue Library, and East End Arts Council where she was awarded Best In Show.
Her imagery has appeared in The Southampton Review (TRS) published by Stony Brook University. She has also received several grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).
Also an educator, Meryl teaches photography as well as yoga—a longtime passion that fuels her creativity. The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) has funded several workshops, Beyond the Snapshot, conducted by Meryl at the Center Moriches Library.
Meryl studied photography at the International Center of Photography (ICP ) and the Center for Media Studies in Manhattan as well as the Image-Ouverte School of Photography in the South of France. A former freelance journalist for The New York Times, she is also a writer with a Masters of Fine Arts in English & Writing.