Sag Harbor Gallerist & Photographer Tulla Booth Remembered

Sag Harbor artist, designer and gallerist Tulla Booth, a beloved wife, stepmother, grandmother, cousin, sister and friend, died peacefully in her sleep on January 6 after a lengthy illness.

She is survived by her husband of 38 years, Ed Segal, who she met in the jewelry business — an industry where she thrived in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming well known for her use of beads in New York City.

Booth and Segal later took over a Sag Harbor gallery on Main Street and made it their own place for dealing emerging and contemporary photography, as well as estate jewelry, Tulla Booth Gallery, in 2003.

Booth eventually channeled her creativity into shooting her own pictures, becoming an excellent fine art photographer in her own right. She always photographed flowers, which she’d point out was appropriate since the Greek extraction of her name meant “little flower.”

“I always liked pretty things,” she said during an appearance on Spotlight on the Arts, also noting that she and Segal kept flowers all over their home and gardens.

Along with showcasing some fabulous photography by internationally beloved artists, such as Stephen Wilkes and Eric Meola, Booth also helped start the careers of younger local or emerging artists at her gallery.

She loved to host parties, cook and beautify all things around her. Booth had a strong mind and lived her life fully her way. She also did much for the Sag Harbor community, often supporting local causes including hosting auctions and donating art for the effort to restore and revive the Sag Harbor Cinema into something even more exciting after it was nearly destroyed in a devastating 2016 fire.

“Tulla went out of her way to make the East End a better place, and I am heartbroken that she is gone, and for Ed’s loss,” artist and friend April Gornik wrote in a short emailed tribute to her.

A service is planned to honor Booth’s memory this spring, her favorite time of year.