This is where I grew up.
I am the second of seven children; growing up in the midwest with two parents, one brother and five sisters.
My younger siblings and their neighborhood friends, 1972.
The first roll of film I shot and processed was in a black & white photography class in the art department of a community college. It was 1970 and I was one of only two women in the class, typical of photography at the time. From the moment I saw my first images emerge in the developer bath, I was hooked. I spent two years in that art department studying drawing, printmaking, design and art history. But it was always photography that I was most drawn to. I still have the first roll of film I processed and the first contact sheet I made.
The Chicago Art Institute and Grant Park from the observation deck of the Prudential Building, 1973
In 1973, I moved to Chicago to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My roommate was also a photography student and we trekked all over the city together documenting political rallies, parades, motorcycle and auto shows, people on the street, dogs on the street, and of course the lake and its beaches. At art school I experimented with different photo techniques like cyanotypes, pinhole photography, and darkroom collages—work which dovetailed with my interest in photo etching. By the time I was a graduate student, I had moved on to a storytelling style using models and minimal props. I spent a total of four years at SAIC, earning BFA and MFA degrees in photography and printmaking, and making lifelong friends in the process.
photo: Preis Grossman
Art degrees in hand, my school mate Nancy Grossman and I opened a photo studio in Chicago, shooting for fashion and editorial clients. We knew nothing about the world of advertising or fashion photography, but ignorance was bliss, and Nancy and I blissfully leapt into this endeavor, starting Preis-Grossman Studio in 1978. We were the only studio in Chicago run by two women and the novelty worked in our favor. We produced some creative work for interesting clients, before eventually deciding to pursue our own paths.
My husband George Siede and I met while I was a grad student at SAIC and he was the assistant director of the school’s Media Center. We’ve been partners in business and in life ever since. Along the way we had two beautiful little girls, Caroline and Katie. They’re all grown up now, accomplished creative women in their own right.
photo: Siede Preis
Siede Preis Photography: In 1982, George and I began collaborating professionally. For the first year we shot in our (cramped) apartment and rented studio space as needed. Next we rehabbed a derelict loft space, creating a large photo studio in one half and a living space in the other. Our assignments were varied: location work for corporate clients, studio product photography, and editorial work for magazine and book publishing. It was during this period that I learned to love still life photography—making props, building sets, and illustrating concepts.
George and I left Chicago in 1999, moving our business and family to St Louis, swapping our loft for a house rehab project. We transitioned from assignment work to stock photography, having the very good fortune to catch the stock photo wave at the peak of demand.
Photography has changed a lot with digital imagery—the speed and ease of making and refining photographs versus waiting for film to be processed. No more shooting test polaroids, no more crossing your fingers that there really is something usable on the roll of film. No more “rolls of film” for that matter. But essentially, it is the same process of capturing light falling on a subject, just using different tools. The last few years have afforded me the time to shoot new images and revisit some of my earlier photographs, discovering that those images which interested me at a younger age are not necessarily the ones I find most compelling now. It’s been a time to create and to reflect.
And that brings us up to date!
I make photographs for many reasons: to document, to imagine, to remember, to earn a living. Thank you for spending time here with my body of work and my story.
-Donna
Donna, thru the ages.