Jonathan Pearlman began taking pictures with a Kodak Instamatic 124 with flashcubes in 1967. A serious attention to photography began with the purchase of a Canon FTB single-lens reflex in 1974. He soon set up a darkroom at home and learned the in's and out's of developer, stopbath and fixer. Wandering through seedy areas of New York City, he tried to emulate the black and white photos of David Plowden in his book, The Hand of Man on America.

A stint as the photo editor of his college newspaper led to a three-year engagement as an architectural photographer for Margaret Henderson Floyd, a leading New England historian. While studying architecture, he made a modest living photographing buildings in Boston, Austin and in Italy.

Digital photography has made taking pictures a commodity, but Jonathan still looks for the composition and detail that makes photography worthwhile and satisfying. He is a practicing architect in San Francisco, California.