Alan M. Scherr ’85, visual and performing arts – photography and his daughter Naomi were among the Americans killed in the terrorist attacks at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, India, on November 26, 2008.
Alan M. Scherr ’85, visual and performing arts – photography and his daughter Naomi were among the Americans killed in the terrorist attacks at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, India, on November 26, 2008.
Scherr is remembered by UMBC faculty and staff as a superlative craftsman and an inspired image maker. He later earned an M.F.A. degree from George Washington University.
Jaromir Stephany, associate professor emeritus, visual arts, said, “There is so much I remember about Alan. I thought his work was provocative and remember how he spent so much time to thinking out his images. He was profoundly interested in the thoughts of Minor White, my mentor, and the unknown edges of life.”
Scherr taught photography at UMBC in the 1980s and at Loyola College of Maryland in the 1990s while working as a freelance photographer. He also worked as a master printer specializing in platinum and palladium printing. His prints from the negatives of John G. Bullock, Photo-Secessionist and associate of Alfred Stieglitz, were the basis of renewed appreciation for Bullock’s images in the 1989 Library Gallery exhibition and the book titled An American Vision: John G. Bullock and the Photo-Secession by Tom Beck (Aperture in Association with University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1989). Scherr also provided the platinum prints for The Artful Eye: Images by John G. Bullock, a portfolio of six prints published by UMBC in 1997.
Chief Curator Tom Beck remembers that Scherr developed his exacting approach to making images while a student at UMBC. “He took to the use of the large sized view cameras, and photography became a means of meditation for him; it was a connection to the inner pulse of the world,” Beck says. “In Scherr’s view, photography was a way of developing one’s potential in all realms of life, and this was a value that he gave to his students. He was a man of peace whose contemplation of trees was an expression of his belief that humanity could live in harmony with the natural world. “
For many years, Scherr was closely associated with the Synchronicity Foundation — a non-profit, non-sectarian, spiritual and educational organization — and served as its president.
“Alan was a participant in the early days of the visual arts department,” said Stephany. ” Both my wife Therese and I are in shock that such a caring and thoughtful man came to such an undeserving end. Our hearts go out to his family and friends for this tragic conclusion to a life of gentleness.”
The thoughts and sympathies of the UMBC community go out to Kia Scherr, his spouse, and the Scherr family: his mother Carolyn; his brother Mark; and his sister Susan.
A tribute site is online at www.alanandnaomi.com/.
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