Lyle Gomes was born in San Francisco in 1954 and currently resides in the Bay Area. He received his B.A. in Art (1978) and his M.A. in Photography (1980) from San Francisco State University.  He has served as Department Head for the Photography Program at the College of San Mateo since 1984. 

His photographs have been exhibited widely in both the U.S. and abroad. His work can be found in numerous permanent collections that include: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; San Jose Museum of Art; Stanford Museum; and Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego.

In 1998, Gomes was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award for his photographic project: Hand-made Landscape: Photographs of the English Countryside. The Fulbright Scholar program provides grants to American scholars conducting research in countries around the world.  The final selection, for this international award, was made by scholars in the United Kingdom. Gomes� 1998 Fulbright award was the first Fulbright, from the U.K., given to an artist in over 7 years.

The Fulbright award is a major part of Lyle's long-term study of Hand-made Landscapes�photographs that reflect our innate human desire to dwell harmoniously with nature. In 1994, the first component of this project, The Presidio: A City Woodland, was exhibited by the Friend�s of Photography with a selection of images published within the Friends� inaugural issue of SEE.: A Journal of Visual Culture.  

In 2000, American city parks, especially those created during the 19th century, became the latest subject of Lyle's long-term landscape project. Over the next few years he plans to visit over a dozen American cities (and a few Canadian) that possess these historic landscapes. The portfolio is at an early stage and includes photographs from New York, Chicago and San Francisco. By the end of 2001 Lyle hopes to have visited an additional 8�10 cities.

The panoramic format used by Lyle Gomes is produced by masking both the ground glass and film plane of his 4 x 5 camera. His Toyo field camera has been modified to produce a 1.75 x 5 inch negative that allows him to �crop� at the moment of exposure. Lyle has used this method exclusively since 1988.