Bio
David was born a New Year’s baby in 1956, in the heartland of the United States (Cleveland Ohio) to Ruth and Abraham Skernick. Prior to David’s birth, in simpler times, he took up photography, and crammed their basement with all manner of photo and developing equipment, most imposing among them a 1947 state-of-the-art Omega B3 Enlarger. Like an alien beast from his favorite creature features, this machine both terrified and fascinated David, and in the end he succumbed to the allure and so began his photographic journey.
David started take pictures of the only interesting things in his hometown: people and landscapes. He eventually narrowed his work to landscapes because nature didn’t ask so many questions.
David continued to refine his artistic approach, and on a dare moved to Los Angeles in 1980 where he met, tutored, and eventually married his star photography student Ria in 1992.
In 1981 David founded PHOTO 24 as a way to bring together his generation of fine art photographers in a mission to sell nature and landscape photographs to corporations and institutions, arguing “everyone can be better off with a little more nature.”
David’s current photography reflects his formative experience making that long drive from Ohio to California. On that trip David developed an appreciation of the sometimes overlooked magnificence that is American culture, nature and landscapes. Since then David travels exclusively by his truck “AlsoBob” on the “gray roads” (back roads on the AAA maps are all marked by gray lines), and never the same road twice.
Recent shows include the L.A. Photo Show and Photo L.A. 2015 and 2016 and Photo Independent 2015. The book Lost on Gray Roads was released along with a showing at the ArtLA gallery in Bergamot Station in Los Angeles in 2013.
David resides in Warsaw, Virginia with his wife Ria and dog Dudley. He spends as much time as possible teaching and traveling the gray roads of America.
