Russell L. Drisch

Born in 1944 in Rock Island, Illinois, Russell Drisch is a photographer and painter who resided in Buffalo, NY during the 1970s and 80s. Originally an actor, Drisch moved to Buffalo to play two seasons at Studio Arena Theater. During this time, his interest in photography overcame his love for theater. He left acting and opened Drisch Photography studio and Gallery West. 

Drisch is totally self-taught in photography. His work first began to draw attention in the early seventies, and since then he has had important solo exhibitions at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester (1974); at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1976); at The Baltimore Museum of Art (1978); and at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (1983). His works have also been exhibited in many cities such as New York and Toronto. They have been published in Time and Buffalo Magazines. He is known for hand-tinting black & white photographs/gelatin silver prints with very pale washes of red, yellow and cyan.

In 1989, Drisch was invited to create “one in a series of installation pieces at The Brooklyn Museum known as Grand Lobby Projects…[The] large triptych mural entitled Gateway, which, as a sort of home to spring, [brought] the romance and allure of a verdant garden setting to the Grand Lobby of The Brooklyn Museum.” In 2004, Drisch donated this spectacular work to the Burchfield Penney Art Center, where it was the destination point for visitors to the new museum building opening in November 2008. The mixed media, photography and acrylic 60-panel mural is 17 ft. high x 48 ft. 9 in. long x 1-1/8 in. deep. At the time, Russell Drisch said he wanted to donate his Gateway mural “as an expression of my appreciation and as acknowledgement of the ongoing debt of gratitude I feel toward Buffalo and the Western New York region…historically a fertile and nurturing incubator for artists and others of all stripes. I, as ‘others’, were fortunate to have had fate cast us onto the shores of Lake Erie to spend some of our early and formative years not to mention bitterly cold winters.”