Wisconsin Photography 2009

August 9 – November 28, 2009
at RAM’s Wustum Museum

Robert W. Baron
Vienna Chef, 2005
Digital inkjet print
Racine Art Museum, Arthur P. Haas Memorial Photography Purchase Award from Wisconsin Photography 2009

RAM’s support of regional photographers and video artists began with Wisconsin Photography 1979. For this exhibition, artists present a portfolio of ten images for review by a professional juror. Unlike most competitions, which ask for one or two entries, this show is comparable to a visit to the artist’s studios, in which the juror is able to view a sizable sampling of each artist’s work.

Wisconsin Photography 2009 includes many different points of view and styles of working. Viewers will find subjects including still life, landscape, documentary, and portraiture. In 1979, all entries were shot on film, then hand-printed by the artists in their own studios and dark rooms. Technological advances now allow photographers more latitude to create and print images digitally as well as through more traditional methods. What remains consistent from one competition to the ext is that each work takes the viewer on a journey made possible by the eye and imagination of the photographers.

2009 the first year that RAM accepted digital entries. This innovation to the juried exhibition contributed to the large number of applications received from all over the state. Of 761 pieces submitted by 78 artists, less than a quarter of the pieces were chosen for this year’s show. Juror Rod Slemmons—Executive Director at The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago—chose the 90 pieces by 45 Wisconsin artists that are represented in Wisconsin Photography 2009.

RAM continues another tradition established in 1979, by purchasing eight works from this year’s exhibition for its permanent collection.

Artists in the Exhibition

Cudahy: Susan Lukas; Fort Atkinson: Alison Dorval; Franksville: Anna Ross; Glendale:Murray Weiss; Green Bay: Mary Ann Carter; Kenosha: Paul Brnak; Lake Geneva: Caroll A. Pearson; Madison: Patricia Delker, Donald Sylvester; Manitowoc: J. Shimon and J. Lindemann; Mequon: George Lottermoser, Bernie Newman, Mark A. Stall; Milwaukee: Mark Brautigam, Ney Tait Fraser, Joel Jaecks, Gary S. Kampe, Robert Magill, Richard Yehl, Jessica Zalewski; Mukwonago: Bernard M. Spinelli; New Berlin: Robert W. Baron, Christine J. Sobczak; Oconomowoc: John Hart; Oshkosh: Erv Schroeder; Racine: Melissa Alexander, Thomas J. Aviles, Slawomir Bala, Eileen Black, James Charnon, Don Nels Johnson, James A. Kipfer, Jason W. Madson, Leonard Peterson, Lewis E. Schultz, Kim Smith, Marc Wollman; Salem: Gabrielle Bakanec; South Milwaukee: Amzel Jean Short; Shorewood: Janice Mahlberg; Sullivan:Lawrence W. Oliverson; Waukesha: JoAnn O’Hare; Wauwatosa: Eddee Daniel; West Allis: William Zuback; Whitefish Bay: Linda Schwam Merkel