The John Brock Art Alcove featured artist for November through December is Ric Savid, a photographer from Clearwater. Savid earned a BA from Rollins College in 1976, then served two years in the U.S. Peace Corps. Following his service, he briefly attended seminary before returning to the Philippines to marry the microbiologist who had discovered his intestinal parasites while in the country. Savid earned a Master’s in journalism from Columbia University in 1982, then worked as a police reporter for the St. Petersburg Times while cleaning boats underwater to support his wife and two children. He quit the paper in 1986 to start a labor-intensive hauling and demolition business and later enrolled in nursing school during the 2008 recession.
Savid is a self-taught analog photographer, shooting all his images under existing light and printing in the darkroom. The results are silver gelatin prints. He has taught photography at various art centers in the Tampa Bay area and to at-risk children for the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County. Currently, he volunteers helping darkroom students at Howard W. Blake High School in Tampa. His work has appeared in American Photo, Aperture, Black and White, and Focus magazines. In 2011, he was the city of Tampa’s Photo Laureate, commissioned to produce black and white portraits depicting the diversity of the city’s inhabitants. In 2023, he published the photo book,”Portraits from my Darkroom,” which was reviewed in the 2024 Fall issue of Black & White magazine. Savid still works part-time in his hauling business and as a home health nurse specializing in antibody infusions.
“The focus and concentration in the solitude of the darkroom is meditative. It allows me a slow visceral and visual editing process. I label my work environmental street portraiture. I gravitate toward uncluttered images. As a child Life magazine’s grainy images mesmerized me. There was Eugene Smith’s photograph of a Japanese mother bathing a daughter deformed by mercury poisoning. It is a disturbing image that draws the viewer into what becomes a Madonna-like portrayal of every mother’s love. Such photos have a spiritual sens
beyond the reach of words. They must be felt.
“My photography is the visual extension of a need to connect with people. I believe this is a primordial human instinct. But our survival instinct simultaneously keeps people at a distance. The intimate portrait peels back this thinking; we see ourselves in others. When people allow me into their space they are being vulnerable, trusting, and I become attuned to the non-verbal. My emotions find a voice in their facial expressions and gestures. Intuition presses the shutter. This gut-level method of working has resulted in a revelation of my own character. The work, in the end, is self-portraiture.”
To explore more about Savid and his work, please visit RicSavidPhoto.com, or to reach out directly at 727-442-5501
