gailrich

Featuring impressively oversized prints by Sentinel photographer Shmuel Thaler of all past Gail Rich Award winners. The Gailies have allowed Thaler the chance to apply his love and talent in portraiture to artists, musicians, writers, performers and all in the arts community.

A staff photographer at the Santa Cruz Sentinel for the past 15 years, award-winning photojournalist Shmuel Thaler has had his images published in Time, Newsweek and People Magazines as well as most of the major newspapers in the United States. Starting with a brownie camera at age 5, Thaler nourished his photographic passion throughout his childhood and teens, winning the Seventeen Magazine photography contest at the age of 16. He shot his first assignment for Time Magazine one year later and hasn't stopped in the twenty-five years since. Thaler has co-authored four books including 'Take Your Best Shot' (Lerner Publications 1995) which won an outstanding book award from the Science Teachers Association. His photographs illustrate Tricycle Press's 1999 release of Pumpkin Circle by George Levinson which has garnered numerous awards and is in its second printing. Thaler, who received his BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts lives in Santa Cruz, California with his favorite subjects - his wife Kathy and daughters Kayla and Hannah