Midwest photo show at Walker’s Point opens December 6

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You are invited! I hope you’ll join me there.

The 7th Annual Midwest Juried Photo Exhibition, sponsored by Milwaukee’s Coalition of Photographic Arts (CoPA) will be held at Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, 839 S. 5^th St. Milwaukee.

December 6, 2013 – January 18, 2014



Opening Reception: 
Friday, December 6^th,  5 – 9pm


Gallery talk and award presentations by Juror Karen Irvine at 7pm



Closing Reception:
Winter Gallery Night, Friday, January 17^th, 5 – 9pm

The regional exhibition includes the work of 37 photographers from Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.

I am happy to announce that I’m one of the 37 photographers and here is a sneak preview of my print.

“Horizon” is from a series called Synecdoche: the fragment that represents the whole.

Synecdoche is a literary device in which the part represents the whole. ("All hands on deck!" refers to the whole sailor, not just the hands.) My images are meant to be visual examples of synecdoche, which I use metaphorically. My subjects are the complex and often paradoxical relationships that I perceive between nature and architecture, or natural and human features in the landscape. My approach, using the part to represent the whole, symbolizes the fragmentation we experience in our everyday environment.

The juror is Karen Irvine, Curator and Associate Director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago.

Her bio, from CoPA: Karen Irvine has organized over forty exhibitions of contemporary photography at the MoCP and other institutions and written essays for numerous artist monographs and magazines. Irvine is a part-time instructor of photography at Columbia College Chicago. She received an MFA in photography from FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic, and an MA in art history from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

CoPA and contemporary photography

What is “contemporary photography?” On the face of it “contemporary” includes whatever is happening today and excludes work done before some unspecified point in the past. When applied to art and photography the meaning of “contemporary” is imprecise, elusive, and by definition always changing. For some it connotes “cutting edge” – work that pushes the boundaries of established practice, be it style, subject matter, use of medium, or concept. (An ironic conundrum for museums of contemporary art is what to call aging work in their collections.)

Perry Heideman

However, contemporary art, to use its general denotative meaning, is not always “cutting edge.” Never was, never will be. And while historians and some collectors will always be on the watch for what is new and different, novelty can be overrated and its value overestimated. (Market valuation of “contemporary art” during the 1980’s was an egregious instance of this phenomenon.) Art doesn’t have to be “edgy” to be meaningful, good, or creative. What it should be, in my opinion, is personal and original rather than derivative or formulaic.

Enter CoPA – Milwaukee’s Coalition of Photographic Arts – an organization whose stated goal is to “cultivate awareness of contemporary photography” with an emphasis on fine art photography. The annual exhibit that showcases the work of its membership is currently on display at the Mayer Building, 342 N. Water St. in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. 

I sat down to write a review of the show, which is a sprawling testament to the vitality and diversity of photography in Milwaukee, and which contains a range of styles, subjects, methods of presentation, and conceptual approaches that defies categorization. The edgy intermingles with the traditional. It is tempting to describe a few favorites and be done with it.

Michael Nowotny

But as I wander amongst the beautiful and stimulating images in the show, my thoughts are sidetracked by nagging questions about CoPA and it’s evolving identity. CoPA was founded in 2004 by a small group of photographers who wanted to network and to elevate the conversation about fine art photography in Wisconsin. Since then CoPA has grown tremendously and has changed. Many founding members have moved on. For some it no longer meets their personal networking needs; some feel that it is becoming more like camera clubs, which serve different functions for their members. (For an excellent description of the difference between a camera club and a group devoted to photographic arts, read CoPA president Robb Quinn’s essay on the subject.)

The current board of directors has struggled with this issue. Any successful organization with an open, self-selected membership is likely to face such an identity crisis. Success invites broader participation; an influx of new members risks a dilution of the original mission. 

William Zuback

 Full disclosure: I am not a disinterested observer. As both a founding and current member, I care about the direction CoPA takes and desire to see it function as intended. I believe that CoPA can be a voice for contemporary fine art photography. I also know that the challenge is real. New board members will be elected in May. Their leadership will be needed to realize CoPA’s potential as a vital force in the arts community of Wisconsin. But their deliberations would benefit from engaging in an energetic dialogue with those with diverse opinions who have expressed concern about the group’s changing identity.

Meanwhile, I consider the membership show to be required viewing for anyone who thinks they know what CoPA is about – or who simply wants to see a lot of wonderful photography. Of course, any open, non-juried show that includes over a hundred photographers is going to have a few weak spots, but overall the quality is remarkably high. When you come, I believe you will find some delightful surprises.

The exhibit is open daily from 12 – 6 pm through May 21.

For more information go to the CoPA website.

Robb Quinn

If you’re still with me and you do want a few selected favorites, read on. These are in no particular order. There are many more I’d like to have included!

Perry Heideman’s exquisitely realized and enigmatic urban fairy tales.

Joseph Baranowski’s angst-ridden triptych self-portraits.

Jennifer Loberg’s emotionally charged portraits of pain and disfigurement.

Robb Quinn’s 87-inch-long panorama of protest from Capitol Square in Madison.

Marcia Getto’s remarkably fresh take on El Rancho de Taos, NM, one of photography’s great iconic motifs.

Mark Johnson’s monumental yet surprisingly intimate, sensual, and alluring impression of Barbie.

Angela Morgan’s tiny image of an LP record rising incongruously, monolithic, amidst autumn weeds.

Judith Pannozo’s perfectly composed decisive moment of a strikingly stiletto-heeled woman balancing on the back of a bicycle.

William Mueller’s startling distortions in which ordinary objects metamorphose into brightly colored insects.

Tim Holte’s nearly volcanic explosion of ice on the shore of Lake Michigan.

CoPA Show a Smorgasbord of Milwaukee Photography

Those who managed to find its out-of-the-way location on the 4th Floor of the Third Ward’s P.H. Dye Building (and the crush of visitors on gallery night proves that many did) found in the CoPA Show a veritable smorgasbord of photographic delights. For this its 5th annual show, CoPA (The Coalition of Photographic Arts) continues to defy the odds with an unjuried show for its large membership. Subject matter and style vary tremendously, but the show maintains a remarkable level of quality and a large following of admirers.

I, of course, am not a dispassionate observer, being a founding member and former board member of the still young, still evolving organization. I also have work of my own in the show.

I couldn’t possibly comment on all or most of the participants, who, in any case are represented by a mere sample of work, in most cases 3 to 5 pieces. A few with larger prints have only one or two on display, which admittedly begs the question of whether the show tries to be too inclusive and ends up frustrating visitors who want to see more of a particular photographer’s output. I for one think the format is serving its purpose. The gallery night crowd seems to agree. Thanks go to Geri Laehn and Jill Moore, who organized the show and the army of volunteers who helped put it together.

There are quite a few familiar favorites.
Coree Coppinger continues to amaze me with her Fight Club series. The images manage a wonderful balancing of formal abstraction and intense emotion.
William Mueller teases with his incredibly complex constructed metaphoric scenes. I’ve seen some of these before. Here he has presented them with a gold monochrome that enhances a macabre content that teeters on the brink of humor before a close inspection reveals how serious they really are.
Suzanne Garr takes us with her on a trip to Nepal, but leaves out the travelogue to focus on carefully observed moments of human interest.
Despite repeated exposure to the colorful distortions in Cardi Toellner’s studio abstractions, I still don’t know how she does it without resort to Photoshop!
Paul Matzner takes on Milwaukee’s Motif #1, the Calatrava wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum and handles it with a refreshing emphasis on the people who visit.
Bill Zuback creates an ambiguous dialogue between his enigmatic subject and us the viewers, leaving us to do the interpreting.
Mary Dumont manages to marry two seemingly contradictory realities, mounting her beautiful, almost archetypal landscapes on an aluminum surface that gives them an industrial sheen.
I am particularly drawn to Jessica Zalewski’s taut abstractions of ordinary landscapes and I find Nancy Aycock’s colorful and monumental cupcakes luscious enough to drool over.

In the delightful new surprises category:
Angela Morgan’s contribution is the three tiny, moody gems that can be found right at the top of her website.
I could not find Mark Johnson’s three entries on his website. They are all tied together by a tall, thin, mostly black composition. A minimal bit of different ephemeral subjects, an exit sign, the moon over water, a shadowy figure, emerges out of the inky depths.
In Africa Anil Warrier found young children as subjects and presents them as monumental and integrally connected with their colorful land.

There are more, but I must stop now!

I close with Susan Lukas’s delightful re-use of a classic technique, which struck me not only as visually and conceptually stirring but humorous. I like that.