After
a long career as an interventional radiologist in Dallas, Texas, Norm
Diamond (b. 1948) transformed his love of photography into a second
career. In his first long-term project, he visited hundreds of Dallas
estate sales photographing the sadness, irony, and humor he found in
the possessions left by one generation to the next. What Is Left Behind – Stories from Estate Sales
became a monograph published by Daylight Books in 2017. In addition to
group shows, The Afterimage Gallery in Dallas and the Cumberland
Gallery in Nashville hosted solo shows of this series.
In his second project, Doug’s Gym, he chronicled the last six months of a dilapidated, yet somehow beautiful old gym on Commerce Street in Dallas. The physical decay intrigued him as did its octogenarian owner, Doug Eidd, a character from a bygone era. German publisher Kehrer Verlag published Doug’s Gym: The Last of Its Kind in February 2020. Many group shows featured prints from the series, and the Afterimage Gallery hosted a solo show just before the pandemic struck. Based on these two projects and his work-in-progress Dark Windows, Diamond has been a finalist in the Photolucida Critical Mass competitions of 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Regarding the series below, Diamond observes, "I photograph scenes that move me in some way. My images are usually stark – in lighting, setting, and or subject. Many of the images speak to solitude and loss, which are themes common to all of my projects." |