history

I was born in 1970 in Miami, Florida, to my parents, Robert M Schneberger, and Marge G Schneberger. My father was a senior pilot for Eastern Airlines, eventually retiring as number one on Eastern's seniority list. My mother was at one time a flight attendant for Eastern as well. My older siblings (Linda, Rob, and Scott), were all grown up and moved out of the house when I came along, so I was basically an only child. I grew up in Miami, attending Gulliver Preparatory for high school.

Growing up, my favorite things were swimming, playing sports, and rooting for the Miami Dolphins and Hurricanes. Later, in high school my loves were skateboarding and punk rock. I would skateboard nearly every day, for hours, either on the street or at one of many skateboard ramps that were built in the backyards of my friends. Not only did I skateboard, but I photographed skateboarders and occasionally published my own "zine" about the local skateboard scene in Miami. I also wrote about the punk rock scene that I was a part of, both as a rabid listener and as a musician. In high school I was in a local hardcore punk band called Not Dead Yet.

In 1988, I went off to college at the University of Florida in Gainesville. After a few years, skateboarding and music gave way to my new priority - making art. I had always enjoyed drawing and painting in high school, but never thought it was something I could do seriously. That changed when I started taking art classes in college and decided I wanted to spend all my time in art studios. I also saw a lecture by photographer Jerry Uelsmann, who taught at UF, and decided to major in photography.

During my time in art school at UF, I made a number of good friends and two very important intersections. Evon Streetman was my professor for several photography courses and became an inspiration and mentor, somebody who I keep in contact with to this day. Her warm personality, love of the medium of photography, and distinctly southern wisdom, drew me to her. The other intersection was with Tony Shipp, a sculpture grad student at the time. Tony was never my instructor officially, but spending time with him in his studio taught me a great deal about the value of craftsmanship and dedication to an artform. He also instilled in me a healthy disrespect for postmodernist academics. I also met Peter Loh, a fellow student in the BFA program, who continues to be one of my closest friends to this day.

As an undergraduate, I made a series of images titled Anonymous. The series was comprised of roughly 50 images, all surrealistic scenario photographs involving figures, costumes, and locations, and made with infrared film.

In 1993 I began graduate school at Indiana University in Bloomington. My work took a swing away from straight imagery and towards mixed media, influenced by the work of both Tony Shipp and the Starn twins. Grad school was an occasionally tumultuous experience, but also yielded some key intersections. The primary one was with a painter named Michael Ferris who remains one of my closest friends. Michael was also a grad student struggling with the whole experience, and we found in each other both a sympathetic ear and a sports fan. Together, we became "SUPERFANS" of the women's basketball team, which served as much-needed escape from our studios and seminars. (That story is worth telling, just not here.) The other important connection I made was with my professor, Jeff Wolin. Early on, we butted heads on a number of issues, mostly because I was young and rebellious. But as time went on, I learned an awful lot from him about professionalism, determination, and the business of art.

While at IU, I also became involved with the student radio station, WIUS, and even wrote a screenplay based on my experiences as a DJ there. Filmmaking was another thing that I was able to learn and explore, and I made two short films.

My MFA program conlcluded with my thesis exhibition called Recalling the Garden which was comprised of mural sized photographs. The images were scenarios showing solitary people in the expanse of farmland, engaged in the activities of an only child entertaining itself.

I graduated from IU in 1996, but decided to stay in Bloomington another year. For work, I learned web design and got a job designing a website for the IU athletic department. Sadly, my mother passed away in February of 1997.

After bouncing around from Indiana to Florida to Seattle, I moved to Chicago, Illinois, in the fall of 1997. Initially I did freelance web design, but found it a job too solitary for my personality. The following summer I was appointed both instructor and photography studio coordinator for the Evanston Art Center. I continue to teach there and run the photo facility now, and have also taught part-time at Columbia College and Barat College.

Once I started working at the Evanston Art Center, I also began making photographs again. My first new body of work was a two-year project called Next Year which was comprised of documentary portraits of the people that make up the Wrigley Field experience. I was becoming an incurable Cubs fan at the time. This work was fairly well recieved and was even published by the Cubs in their official magazine.

When I was done with the series, I was itching to get back to my surrealist, scenario-based imagery, and I started my current series of work, Communing with Spirits. This series involves invented scenarios based on ghost stories, whether actual or fictional. The images are presented both as two-dimensional mixed-media pieces with Victorian-era framing, or as stereoscopic cards from the same era. This series has been by far the most exhibited and best-selling of any work I've made so far. Recently, I have joined FLATFILE Gallery where I am showing recent work.

In 2001, my father passed away. I had just been offered three different full-time professorships at colleges away from Chicago, but decided to remain here. I love my city, despite its long winters, and feel I'm a part of a vital art community. I love the spring and summer here and can't imagine not living in reach of Wrigley Field and the Cubs. I'm also playing drums in a band called Avocet.