Gary Schneider (American, 1954- ) was born in South Africa and now lives and works in New York City. He earned a BFA from the University of Cape Town in South Africa and an MFA from Pratt Institute in NY. Schneider's twin obsessions of biology and portraiture have led to series such as, "The Genetic Self-Portrait" and "Botanical." In "Genetic Self-Portrait" he worked with varied materials from nineteenth century negatives found at a flea market to complex modern medical photo microscopy developed in collaboration with scientists. The result is "portraits" that not only challenge our notions of portraiture and likeness but also push the medium of photography to extremes. "Botanical," a series began in 1989, began as a homage to eighteenth and nineteenth century botanical studies and has evolved into collaborations with a biologist and an electron microscopist. Both bodies of work illuminate the artist's ongoing absorption with science and his intertwined obsessions with found objects, biography, and autobiography.