Gerald Slota's manipulated photographic work features simple narrative images coupled with the illustrative impulses of the artist's own hand. After producing a negative, Slota alters it, therefore marring the original, or affects the actual print, with punctured holes, scratches, cryptic drawings made of chalk or pencil, cut edges, and other mark-making techniques. All his works are thus completely unique.  His black and white photography carefully balances difficult and confrontational imagery that blends mundane life with the possibilities of the ominous.    Slota's work has elicted strong responses from many writers and critics. Photography critic A.D. Coleman writes: "...something extraordinary takes place when Mr. Slota applies his inclinations to his materials: Unrelated components behave synergistically, plot fragments start to skitter around like mice startled in the kitchen, shards of artifact turn resonant. In other words, real art gets made. The homegrown feel of these mixed-media works and their superficial mundaneness enhance the consistent sense of something obsessive, shocking, more than a little chaotic, lurking beneath their surfaces..." (The New York Observer, 1996).   Slota's work is in several prominent collections. He has graced the cover of The New York TImes magazine, as well as in issues of The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, The Art of The X-Files, the Literary Magazine Harper's, The New Yorker, Aperture, Graphis and Blind Spot.