Bio

Hank Somma
Hank Somma learned the importance of detail in pursuit of a craft long before he photographed his first subject. Early in his working life, he designed and built fine wood cabinetry. Later he applied that same critical eye on a much larger scale, delivering drawings for major manufacturing facilities as founder of a Design and Drafting firm.

Eventually, that eye drifted behind the lense of a camera and he found his calling: photography. Somma has spent the years since trying always to depict life in a pure and simple – yet sensitive, manner, uncluttered and unstaged. Giving the viewer the feelings and emotions, he experiences while shooting is what he tries to accomplish in each photograph.

Somma’s first submitted work as a photographer, a portrait of two women entitled “Two on a Rail” captured the 1984 Kodak, Pittsburgh Press Grand Prize Award in black and white.

Somma’s work has since appeared in both local and national publications, including Pittsburgh Magazine, Pitt Magazine, Northwest Airlines In – Flight Magazine, and others. Somma toured America’s deep south, photographing for a special issue of The Harvest Magazine, a publication of the Josephite Priests.

His travels have taken Somma to such photographically rich locations as Thailand, Jamaica, Japan, and the Philippines. The Rockefeller Foundation, the Holy Childhood Association, The Carnegie, and numerous arts, health and philanthropic institutions have commissioned his photos.

Somma has exhibited his work in juried gallery shows and arts festivals throughout Western Pennsylvania.

Editorial
Pittsburgh Magazine
The Pittsburgh Women
The Harvest Magazine
Northwest Airlines in-Flight Magazine
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh Alive
Pitt Magazine
Adweek Magazine
Mothering Magazine
Primo Magazine

Corporate
HBM Creamer Advertising
West Penn Power Company
JWJ Enterprises, Inc.
Pittsburgh Visitors & Convention Bureau Inc.
DDF&M Direct
O’Brien-Kreitzberg & Associates, Inc.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Pittsburgh Brewing Company
Terrell Publishing
The Communication Works
Rockefeller Foundation

Clients
World Vision
Holy Childhood Association
Josephites
Maryknoll
Family House Inc.
Children’s Hospital
The Carnegie, Museum of Modern Art
The Carnegie, Library
Mercy Hospital
Presbyterian University Hospital
Shady Side Hospital

Books
Pennsylvania Book, By Barbara Angle Haber (3- Photographs)
Photographer’s Market, 1987 (1 – Photograph)
Pittsburgh Post Cards

Master’s Classes
Mary Ellen Mark, Documentary Photographer
Lisl Dennis, Travel Photographer
Lynn Johnson, Freelance Photographer
Harvey Stein, International Photographer

Foreign Travel
Italy
Philippines
Jamaica
Thailand
Indonesia
Borneo
Singapore
Japan

Gallery Exhibits
Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art Metro Montage 6, 2006 Marietta Ga
Eclipse de luna Restaurant, 2005 Atlanta Ga
Greater Monroeville Arts Festival, 1992, (John Godshall, Juror)
Westmoreland County Community College, 1990, (Susie Post, Juror)
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1989, (Richard Zakia, Juror)
Carnegie Museum of Modern Art, 1988,Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, (Gracie Mansion, Juror)
Blatent Image, Silver Eye, 1988, (Walter and Naomi Rosenblum, Jurors)
Pittsburgh – Russian Photographers Donetsk Exchange, 1988
The Butler Institute of American Art, 1988, (Lou Zona, Juror)
Images of Pittsburgh, The Artist’s View, 1987
Mendelson Gallery, 1987
Three Rivers Arts Festival, 1987, (Susan Kismric, Juror)
Carnegie Museum of Modern Art, 1986,Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, (Carmen Cicero, Juror)
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1986, (Jonathan Green, Juror)
PPG Wintergarden, 1986, (Pittsburgh-Donetsk Exchange Project)
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1985, (Kathleen Monaghan, Juror)
Duquesne University Les Idees Gallery, 1985
Three Rivers Arts Festival, 1985, (David Travis, Juror)

Awards
Third Place, Greater Monroeville Arts Festival, 1992
Honorable Mention, Westmoreland County Community College, 1990
Honorable Mention, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1989
Juror’s Discretionary Award, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1986
Honorable Mention, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1986
Pittsburgh Press Grand Prize Winner, (Black and White) 1984

Past Memberships
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh
Blatent Image / Silver Eye
Photographers Guild of Pittsburgh

Collections
My Photographs are in Private and Corporate Collections and in the permanent collection of The Monroeville Library.