On November 16 at the 56th annual Monticello Goshen Chapter Awards Banquet racetrack photographer Geri Schwarz will finally step in front of the cameras and be photographed when she receives the chapter’s Award of Appreciation.

For many years now, Schwarz has been the track photographer at Monticello Raceway, and an award-winning one, at that. She has also been the track photographer at Goshen Historic Track since 1998 and her abilities are legendary.

First and foremost, her finish-line photographs are spot-on, as are her winner’s circle photographs. Not only is her work first rate, but she has an eye for the unusual and many times she captures shots that others wouldn’t even notice.

A few years ago, while waiting to photograph the race finish at the ‘Mighty M,’ a cat was crossing the racetrack at the top of the homestretch nearly in front of a field of horses. The cat cleared and the lead horses didn’t notice, but Schwarz did and photographed the cat with the horses in the background. An unusual photograph for sure.

Schwarz is so quick with her camera that many a time she has taken a winner’s circle photograph of a horse rearing up, which is certainly an unusual shot.

It’s not to say that Schwarz looks for these oddities, she just has a knack with a camera.

“When I see something that is unusual I’m often ready to photograph it,” Schwarz acknowledges.

It’s precisely that instinct that caught the photo that won her the prestigious George Smallsreed Award for harness racing photography a few years ago.

That day rain was falling like it was being poured from a spout, and water lay on the racetrack, even inside the pylons. It was raining so hard that the drivers had a tough time seeing, and when they were in the homestretch three horses came close to colliding, so one went inside the pylons spraying water as he went. It was certainly an unusual shot and it got noticed on the internet and in the press.

For Schwarz, photography is a labour of love.

“I certainly don’t make a lot of money photographing, but I just love being around the horses,” she says.

It was just that love of the animals that Schwarz decided to take the USTA Driving course. Not once, but twice – first in Columbus, Ohio, and then in Goshen, NY.

“I enjoyed the school so much in Columbus that when it was offered at Historic Track I couldn’t pass it up,” she said. “I’ll probably never drive a horse in a race, but I did earn a certificate and had a blast in doing so.”

Originally from the Bronx and raised on Long Island, Schwarz matriculated at the community colleges of Nassau, Queens and later Sullivan. While at Sullivan County Community College – now SUNY-Sullivan – Schwarz moved to the Catskills and has been there ever since, except for the time she spent in Israel living in a kibbutz.

“I lived in a kibbutz for about six months and it was great to experience the simplicity of that lifestyle, but the modern conveniences of America make life a whole lot easier,” she acknowledged.

Perhaps it was there in the kibbutz with her love of the outdoors that Schwarz gained a great appreciation for animals. A few years after she returned home she purchased five acres of land in Bethel.

“I had a house and a barn on the property, so I made fences and boarded a few horses. I even took in a horse that had a broken bone in its foot and nursed him back and I used to ride him all the time. His name was Belle Gay Jigger and I had him for 25 years. He died recently and I’m still heart broken,” Schwarz said.

“I had to work two jobs to make ends meet. I was a paralegal and worked for various lawyers, and in 1980 I got a chance to pursue my love for photography when I went to work for Earle Tunick photographing at Monticello Raceway and Goshen Historic Track.”

In 1998, Schwarz became the track photographer at Historic Track where she still enjoys that relationship. Five years ago she became the track photographer at Monticello Raceway.

“I still have to supplement my income by working as a paralegal because at both Goshen and Monticello the only money I make is from the pictures I sell. And let me tell you that those sales are extremely lean during the cold winter months,” she said.

(USHWA)