Judy Seigel

Judy Seigel (1930–2017) was an American "...illustrator for an advertising firm, a painter, a photographer, a writer, an editor, and a feminist activist" in New York City.

A legend in alternative photographic processes, Seigel taught photography at the Pratt Institute for fourteen years.

Seigel was the founding editor both Women Artists News and The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography. She published two books: Mutiny and the Mainstream, and [Read My T-Shirt] for President... A True History of the Political Front - and Back, and provided illustrations for a third, Sight Lines.

Seigel was a passionate activist for the preservation of her neighborhood, Greenwich Village, as well as an advocate of women's art, and a prolific writer of letters to the editors of The New York Times, The Villager, and Newsday.

Early life and education
The daughter of Hortense and Gershon Aronson, Judith Lee Aronson was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on July 20, 1930. Her family moved to Lynbrook, Long Island, then Scarsdale, where she graduated from high school in 1947. She went to Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago, and met Morton Seigel in 1947. They married on December 25, 1951.

Judy Seigel graduated from Cooper Union in 1954, with BFA retroactively bestowed in 1978, after the School of Art was accredited to offer degrees.

Entering the world of New York advertising, Seigel became a graphic artist, working as a staff illustrator at a New York ad agency, then free-lancing children's books. Known for her experimental techniques, she earned places in three annual awards of the field: the Graphis Annual (The International Annual of Advertising and Editorial Graphics), the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition, and the Art Directors Club Award.

From 1959 to early 1965, the Seigels moved to Switzerland while Morton earned a medical degree; and "To support the family — their children were born in Switzerland — Judy did freelance illustrations." Publisher Cynthia Navaretta described Seigel's dissatisfaction with "carrying out other people's ideas, as well as the loss of quality in reproduction", and her commitment to make "art she deeply cared about". In Europe, she began painting oil landscapes in impressionistic style. As soon as family finances allowed, on their return to the United States, Seigel was painting full time.

After a Fauvish period painting cityscapes, Seigel began using acrylics in abstract and pattern-based ways that were sometimes mistaken for large scale experimental photographs. She made note of a 1968 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, "Photography into Printmaking", that demonstrated solarizing and infrared photography, with effects resembling some of her painting techniques. Ten years later, she became interested in photography to document the street literature appearing on T-shirts, shooting some 1,600 "T-shirts of 1978" images, which she printed in a basement darkroom originally set up by her son.

Photography
In 1980, Seigel took graduate studies in photography at the Pratt Institute. Called "a legend in the elucidation of the alternative process arts", and "a leading expert in the field", she taught photography at Pratt for fourteen years.

Seigel's sub-basement darkroom was one of four darkrooms described by Modern Photography in 1988: "Seigel's darkroom may look like a dungeon, but it does the job. Much of the furniture comes from fleamarkets and throw-aways. To accommodate the height of her Omega C23 enlarger, Seigel had a hole made in the ceiling." Seigel's printing process was described as working down one wall, with trays beside the enlarger for different strengths of developer. An under-counter tray served as an emergency counter, and opposite the enlarger was a table with a glass surface and a light for solarizing.

The Museum of Modern Art purchased a Seigel gelatin silver process print (toned), titled Pigeons, Village Square, 1980. Seigel's print, Delacorte Fountain, East River (NYC), 1983–1991, is displayed on artnet.com. More of here artwork is included in a posthumous tribute published on The Forward.

Seigel's 1977 solo painting exhibit at the Ward Nasse Gallery and 1985 Metal and Paint photo show at the Port Washington Library drew favorable commentaries.

Of Metal and Paint, Malcom Preston wrote, "The work is as Seigel herself says, 'a hybrid between painting and photography'". He noted that Seigel had used multiple techniques, including the Sabattier process, exposing a print to light during development: "...it is the solarization that compels our eye. And since the chemistry is not always able to be precisely predicted there are some fascinating accidental effects." He wrote that "painted additions — coupled with the often eerie certainly exciting colors that flee across the print surface with a marvelous iridescence — create some delicious visual pleasures". He concluded, "Seigel has the best of two worlds. There is the immediacy of the photographic image and the sensuousness of the painterly-like surface. These are unusual prints. See them!"

Kathleen Paradiso wrote, "Judy Seigel's recent photos have a lyrical quality, salted with technique, and just a pinch of camp." Paradiso described Seigel, as "hooked on darkroom experimentation, who took scrupulous notes, but could never quite control, or recreate, her discoveries", using beakers and a triple beam balance like a scientist. Paradiso also mentioned a Popular Photography review of Metal and Paint by Natalie Canavor, who had written, "Here's proof that photography's recognized boundaries have expanded sufficiently to obviate further debate about 'is it or isn't it photography.'" Paradiso concluded, "Metal and Paint is something new."

Periodicals
Seigel was the founding editor of Women Artists Newsletter, which became Women Artists News (1975–1992). Gwen Allen quoted Cynthia Navaretta: "The magazine functioned as 'an information exchange for artists' and 'a vehicle for artists to talk about art—[we] see ourselves as an advocate and voice for artists, and specifically women artists." Allen wrote that Women Artists Newsletter published reviews that covered topics "such as sexism in the art world, and balancing work and motherhood". The magazine had a circulation of 6,000 to 7,000, and 10,000 at one point.

Seigel also founded, edited, and published The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography (1998–2004). One reviewer wrote, "Post-Factory Photography is certainly the best underground do-it-yourself alternative-process photography magazine on the planet, containing no end of arcane information. The magazine quickly becomes an indispensable reference for anyone interested in alternative processes." Another said, "As the factory-made materials of modern photography fade from view, hand-applied media, new and old, take the field. The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography brings you 48 pages of information, inspiration, and news about this world-wide movement, from facts and formulas to personalities and history."

Sil Horowitz reported in the PSA Journal that The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography was a new periodical about "alternative photography", noting that soon all chemical-based media may become "alternative". He listed articles on "Gum Control - an Introduction", as well as "basic gum bichromate (excellently explained and illustrated), a comparison of Van Dyke brown formulas, a piece on 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Computer', which covers using a scanner instead of a camera, relevant book reviews, a comprehensive examination of 'Sense & Sensitometry,' and several pages listing sources of materials required for alternative photography".

Books
1.

It was described as a "way to get inside of artists' heads":"This book is just plain wonderful, with all the endearing cussedness of the mud-slinging love fest that is the New York art community. Sophistication, intelligence, pretense, honesty, ambition, elegance, paranoia, professionalism, humor, and anger all bubble along here in a great stew, the stock of which is devotion to art... Artist and photographer Judy Seigel, who assembled Mutiny, possesses not inconsiderable skills as a writer, along with independence of mind and willingness to speak it."

2.

[Read My T-Shirt] for President... A True History of the Political Front - and Back, consisted of photographs of "people in T-shirts with different texts, concentrating on political messages after taking part in the protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention". The book returned to the subject that first interested her in photography nearly twenty years earlier– "the street literature" breaking out in slogans on T-shirts in the 1970s. The Villager review described it as, "a retrospective of political T-shirts and their significance in society", with the T-shirts pictured in the book as ranging from, "witty to profound to obscene".

3.

Art and feminism
Some of Seigel's activism took the form of letters to the editors of New York newspapers. For example, she disputed the claim that selling art on the streets was a constitutional matter. Seigel called it "schlock as free speech" and "the right to clog streets."

Seigel wrote more than once about the obscenity of the ways women are portrayed:


 * She published an essay in Women Artist News critical of the University of Arizona's offering for sale some prints of nude photographs of women: "...It's hardly news that a large and lucrative market exists for material of this type. It is news when an institution of higher learning moves to cash in on it."
 * She also sent letters to the editors of The Villager critical of Don Imus, who "..still thinks it's 'fun' and 'cool' to call women 'hos.' ...We can't necessarily blame Imus for being a moron, but we can blame his enablers, who are the real 'hos'".
 * She was critical of The New York Times article about a female professor's objection to Goya's Naked Maja being shown in the classroom: "...the professor's objection didn't involve simply the arousal of male fantasy, as Ms. Goldberg suggests, but the stereotype of woman as whore." Seigel wrote, "Throughout history, art has famously shown woman in two roles, saint or sinner, not only revealing but also creating a mind-set that affects us all... In the case of the Maja, whether or not the lady is a whore, she's naked female flesh on the wall, one of a long line of naked women in a culture in which, whatever movies show us, people in power still wear clothes". 

Seigel objected to a New York Times story on Senator D'Mato's opposition to Medicaid payments for abortions: "Tom Goldstein tucks Senator D'Amato's opposition to Medicaid payments for abortions for victims of rape and incest into a brief list of 'conservative positions'... No amount of good Senator D'Amato might do could compensate for the damage of forced child bearing, particularly, if one can imagine it, after rape or incest, particularly for those at the level of Medicaid eligibility."

Community activism
The Villager reported that Seigel was "a passionate advocate for the preservation of Greenwich Village", whose "relentless neighborhood advocacy and artistic endeavors were chronicled in The Villager..." Her letters to the editor also advocated waterfront preservation. In 1992, Seigel wrote, "We in the Village failed to stop the Port Authority from breaking environmental protection laws and city codes when it erected two ventilation towers at the end of Morton Street. These structures were ill-conceived, badly engineered and unnecessary (as independent consultants proved, to the concern of no one in city government)."

In 2004, Seigel led neighbors in protesting "and distributing pamphlets against what they believe is illegal commercial use of property... [which] she calls 'Hollywood on the Hudson' and said that the traffic, trailers, set lights, noise, cranes and parking issues associated with activity... cause a serious disruption to her and surrounding residents." For ten years, Seigel documented the problems, "with a camera, writing letters, staging protests, appealing to the Morton Street Block Association and... speaking at a Community Board 2 meeting." In 2009, Seigel and neighbors rallied to advocate keeping local post offices open.