Gail Skoff is a native Californian who has been photographing since her teens.

Gail Skoff is a native Californian who has been photographing since her teens.

Her early work included black and white landscape photographs from Bali, the American Southwest, and Hawaii, that she hand-colored with oil paints. This mix of photography and painting was a technique Skoff used for almost 30 years.

In 1981 Skoff began to travel extensively through the French wine country with her husband, wine merchant Kermit Lynch, and continues to do so with her son, Anthony. This unique access into French and Italian wine culture allowed her to document the winemakers' lives and the traditional way certain wines are still being produced.

When Skoff turned to vegetables for subject matter in 2001, she stopped hand-coloring because the close-up, sensual portraits of earthy, organic forms were stronger in black and white.

Her interest in close-up photography was deepened when Skoff visited Pompeii and other ruins, as well as by the mosaic floors of Rome and Venice. She created large scale abstract compositions of architectural details, which appear simultaneously ancient and modern. These images led to an investigation of the architecture on the island of Burano near Venice where the brightly colored chimneys appear as minimalist sculptural forms.

Next, she did a series entitled Vital Signs, based on hospital experiences in France using vegetables, especially tomatoes.

Another project was Scenes from Provence, which reflects Skoff's life and experiences living in the South of France. Her photographs used Santons - terracotta figurines who represent métiers of the 18th Century. Skoff photographed them in front of backdrops specifically created for each figure, so they are historical and fantastical at the same time.

In her current project she explores the way artists work by re-imagining their ateliers through photomontage using imagery found in museums mixed with her own photographs.

Skoff has created handmade artists' books in small editions, and has collaborated on wine books with her husband, and cookbooks with Alice Waters, Paul Bertolli and Richard Olney.

Skoff received an MFA from The San Francisco Art Institute in 1979 and was the recipient of an NEA grant in 1976. Her work is included in many collections both nationally and internationally, including The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

She continues to teach and splits her time between homes in Berkeley, California and Le Beausset in Provence, France.

Download Gail’s Resumé