Gregory Spaid is an American artist who works in many modes of art and photography, which are linked by a common thread of illuminating the commonplace. Whether it is the daily movement of pedestrians on the streets of New York City or the leaves that fall in his yard in rural Ohio, it is art's potential to transform our common experiences to reveal meaning and beauty that is the hallmark of his work.

          Spaid’s recent work includes a photography project that explores the importance trees play in our lives and for the health of the planet titled “Reading Trees.” His work on trees includes cliché-verre photographs that incorporate actual leaves and other materials on negatives he makes by hand. For this project he has traveled throughout the United States and has been awarded artist residencies at the Brush Creek Foundation in Wyoming, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Congaree National Park in South Carolina, as well as the Sonoran Artist Residency in Ajo, Arizona.

          He is also at work on a project photographing the dance-like movement of people on the street of New York City for a series of abstract images titled Pedestrians. His photography on the changing landscape of rural America was included in a major group exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angles titled “Where We Live.”  As well as the Getty, his work is in other major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  He received a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Italy and is the recipient of eight grants from the Ohio Art Council.   Spaid has published two monographs on his photography:  Grace:  Photograph of Rural America in 2000 and On Nantucket in 2002.  In 2010 the Getty Museum published his work in a historical survey titled The Tree in Photography.