NJE photographer: Samantha VanDeman

Illinois photographer Samantha VanDeman is a frequent Steenbock contributor.  We first met Sam when we accepted her for a solo exhibition of her work FRAGMENTS FROM THE PAST in 2009.  Her new work, LOST SCHOOLS, was accepted again for a solo exhibition coming up in August of this year, and was selected by Russell Joslin for the Seven State Exhibition as part of PhotoMidwest last year.  Keep in mind, that these are only the CPM exhibits; this work is also making its way around the country!  Her work from LOST SCHOOLS is also what Andy Adams selected for the National Juried Exhibition, running from February 28 until April 8.

Music Room, digital c-print, 20" x 26" [$500]

Samantha's newest accomplishment is her new job teaching at the Illinois Institute of Art!  Check out her website at www.SamanthaVanDemanPhotography.com, and maybe meet her at the opening March 4 from 6-9pm, and you'll see why.

NJE photographer: Claire Warden

It can be tricky finding information on the web about photographers, especially when they don't have websites, but Claire Warden is an exception to that rule.  A photographer from Phoenix, Arizona, when you Google her name and her city, you find Claire's work all over Arizona.  While a student at Arizona State University, Claire won the Tucson 2009 College Scholarship, has work featured on HelloPhoenix.com and the Phoenix New Times art blog, Jackalope Ranch.  Claire has curated exhibits with Phoenix photographers, and has been featured in interviews at AZCentral.com. and has donated proceeds from her work to charities in towns she's photographed.  A young photographer advocating for change, we're thrilled to exhibit her work in the National Juried Exhibition.

Untitled #7, archival digital print, 44" x 36" [$975]

Join us at the opening reception to celebrate photographers like Claire on March 4 from 6-9pm, and see the exhibit anytime from February 28 until April 8.

NJE photographer: Elizabeth M. Claffey

Elizabeth M. Claffey is a Texas photographer currently pursuing her MFA in Photography and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies at Texas Women's University, home of the prestigious Joyce Elaine Grant Annual Juried Exhibition.  Elizabeth's work has been featured in PDN Magazine, USA Today, the Kinsey Institute and the Dallas Morning News, among others.  The work selected for our National Juried Exhibition is from her current series Blood Work. 

Carey's Allowance, archival inkjet print, 20" x 35" [$800]

Blood Work began in December 2010 as the most recent manifestation of an ongoing body of work that explores the relationship between medical science and life experience. In October 2009, Suzan was diagnosed with stage 3B inflammatory breast cancer. Her doctors told her that the tumor, which engorged her left breast and caused her nipple to invert, was growing at a rate of 40%, as opposed to the normal 5% growth rate of breast cancer cells. We met the week after her diagnosis, just before she began chemotherapy. Suzan's desire to record and explore her journey through images reflects one of my primary interests, which developed in 2008 after my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My mother is now living with cancer, but no one prepared her for that possibility. There was no dialogue in place to explore the emotional and physical transitions that became a part of her everyday life, as well as the new shape of her body and its missing pieces. The difficulty of being visibly sick in a society focused on physical perfection furthered feelings of isolation and guilt that accompanied her sickness. The most recent work from this series is a transition, both visually and conceptually, from a documentary project about one woman's experience with cancer, to a deeper investigation of the cyclical nature of illness. The series also investigates the isolation that can be self or society-induced, the difficulty of balancing everyday responsibilities with treatment, and the effects of a medically sterile environment on one's perception of her/his body as a foreign or feared object.
Visit Elizabeth's website at www.ElizabethClaffey.com for a look at her photography, book arts and installation pieces.

Works are arriving for the exhibition from far and wide, and Gallery staff is preparing to install.  Join us at an opening reception son March 4 from 6-9pm, and see the work anytime between February 28 through April 8 at the Steenbock Gallery in Madison, Wisconsin.

NJE photographer: Lucy Helton

British photographer Lucy Helton is based in Brooklyn, New York and began her photographic career in freelance fashion assisting for Elaine Constantine.  She worked her way through the industry, and eventually worked as a production manager for Head of Production for Ridley Scott's RSA Films. Moving back to photography, Lucy worked for portrait photographers Greg Miller and Grant Delin, and eventually decided to return to school to study photography.  This history is strongly evidenced in Lucy's work about where she came from where she is, and where she's going.  Both of her pieces that Andy Adams selected are from her series Where I Was Conceived.

Callahan's Bedroom, inkjet print from b/w 4x5 film, 14" x 11"  [$250]

Grace, digital 35 inkjet print, 11" x 14"  [$250]

I grew up in London hearing stories of a remote farm my parents lived on before I was born.  Where I Was Conceived is a photogrphic journey which took me back in time exploring this starnge and surreal place, Rockne, Bastrop County, Texas.

Standing on the land my father once owned I felt an overwhelming sense of depth as I watched all the surrounding mammals and insects aggressively try to survive the heat and drought, the wild-fires, and poverty they brought, the ever continuing drug and alcohol abusiveness, the reactive religion and finally the flash floods.  Within that moment I also witnessed a strange harmony and peacefulness occur, I recognized a strong belief in family and after a time an evidence in the roles men and women perform when living in this climate.

My decision to make this work black & white is based on a return to my family's past.  I wanted to be open to all I found and demonstrated this by using all formats.  Large format for still-life and landscape as I could spend time examining detail and really enjoy the slow process.  Digital for action and low light and medium format for portraits.  It's also extremely important for me to try to understand and form a relationship with the people I shoot.  I spent lots of time talking, sitting, watching and perhaps living with my subjects - and in time they got used to having me and my camera in their lives.

See more from this series, and Lucy's other work at her website www.LucyHelton.com. The National Juried Exhibition will be at the Steenbock from February 28 until April 8 with an opening reception scheduled for March 4 from 6-9pm.

NJE photographer: Nate Mathews

Today, we're looking at the work of Nate Mathews, a photographer from Bartlett, Illinois. A finalist in last year's Photolucida's Critical Mass and a part of Catherine Edelman's The Chicago Project, Nate is an adjunct professor of photography at Northeastern Illinois University and Waubonsee Community College.

Sunset, Tree Shadow, and Benches, archival inkjet print, 17" x 21" [$500]

Ten Hexagons, archival inkjet print, 17" x 21" [$500]

All of Mathews work is based on investigating design. In his initial body of work titled Ersatz he was investigating the design of public institutions focusing on how the inhabitants of a space would alter it in an attempt to humanize it. The bench project is a topographic survey of benches with the intention of showing the sheer quantity and variety of one simple thing. In more recent projects he has continued that focus on examining design and started manipulating the design with his own hand through the creation of referential sculptures and by breaking down and simplifying his images. 

See more at Nate's website, www.NateMathews.com and click the NEWS link there for his blog. See the National Juried Exhibition, on view at the Steenbock from February 28 until April 8, and make your plans now to attend the opening reception scheduled for March 4 from 6-9pm.

DAY IN DANE: A COMMUNITY PHOTO ALBUM

Celebrate the 175th Anniversary of Dane County by participating in 

Day In Dane: A Community Photo Album. 

Residents of Dane County are invited to take photos during four designated 24-hour periods during 2011 and submit one photo from each period. An online Flickr photo album will be created for viewing throughout the year.

How to participate:

Take photos during the designated 24-hour periods identified below. Subject matter is open, but the

purpose is to produce photos that show what makes Dane County a special place to live and work.

Possible subjects might include landscapes, cityscapes, urban life, rural life, and people at work and

play. Inappropriate or offensive images will not be accepted.

Participants may submit one photo per designated 24-hour period. Photos must be taken during this

designated period of time and must be taken in Dane County. Submissions will be accepted for one

week following the close of each 24-hour period.

Photos should be sized at 72 ppi with the longest dimension not to exceed 960 pixels, and emailed to

dc175@hushmail.com. Include the photographer's name, contact information (email and phone

number), photo title and a brief description of where and when the photo was taken. Photos will be

previewed by a group of local professional photographers and uploaded to an online album.

The four photo dates are:

1. Noon, Friday, Feb. 25, to noon, Saturday, Feb. 26 (submit photos through March 6)

2. Noon, Friday, May 13, to noon, Saturday, May 14 (submit photos through May 22)

3. Noon, Saturday, July 2, to noon, Sunday, July 3 (submit photos through July 11)

4. Noon, Friday, Oct. 7, to noon, Saturday, Oct. 8 (submit photos through Oct. 16)

The photographer must retain a high resolution version of the photo (at least 15" by 9" at 300 ppi). All photos will be considered for use on the 2012 art poster produced by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission and also for inclusion in a photo album to be placed in a time capsule for a future generation. This version SHOULD NOT be emailed with the initial submission. You will be contacted if

your photo is chosen for one of these projects. Copyright remains with the photographer at all times, however Dane County reserves the right to use submitted photos in conjunction with 175th Anniversary Events.

For further information visit the Dane County website.

Sponsored by Dane County, 210 Martin Luther King Blvd., Madison, WI 53703

NJE photographer: Kate Wichlinski

Over the last two weeks you've met artists from all over Wisconsin, our remaining two weeks of profiles will introduce us to artists from around the country, who will be shipping their works to the Steenbock from near and from far. Our first non-native artist, from Memphis, Tennessee is Kate Wichlinski.

Self-Portrait, inkjet print on bamboo paper 16" x 20" [$200]  

My photographs, using the stylistic conventions of the documentary, work to subvert the format and complicate it with my own vision, my own story. For my work, photography is the ideal medium because of its powerful claim to reality. I create images working in documentary style; I do not usually have preconceived images in my head, but conceptual outlines only.

See more of Kate's stunning work at KateWichlinski.com and check out her photo book Confluence, available at Blurb. The Nation Juried Exhibit is running from February 28 until April 8, with an opening reception scheduled on March 4 from 6-9pm.  See you then!!

NJE photographer: James Meldrum

Today we profile our final Wisconsin photographer selected for the National Juried Exhibition, James Meldrum.  James is another photographer absent from the Internet, but busy in exhibits around the state like the CoPA 4th Annual Juried Exhibit, the Monroe Art Center and the Beloit Fine Arts Incubator.

Contours, silver gelatin print, 14" x 11"  [NFS]

Come back on Monday to see what photographers from the rest of the nation are up to, and join us at the exhibit opening March 4 from 6-9pm!  Happy weekend, everybody!!

NJE photographer: Vicki Reed

Vicki Reed is an explorer of land, of home and of process.  This Wisconsin photographer surveys the land of her birthplace in Maine as well as the Wisconsin landscape to create images with alternative processes that capture a nostalgic tone that is hard to come by in most contemporary photography.

Ghost Marsh, lith silver gelatin print, 12" x12"   [$300]

Lith printing is a time intensive, sometimes frustrating but potentially addictive alternative printing process. This technique that involves greatly overexposing a photographic print and then only partially developing it in Lith developer is widely known in Europe and is gaining popularity in the US. It results in prints that often have soft warm highlights adjacent to cool, dark, gritty tones. Photographs can range from soft, smooth, warm-toned images to very cool, textured images. The varied results (color and texture) are determined by the initial exposure, the temperature, dilution and maturity of the chemicals, and the characteristics of the paper used. The process is known for creating images that are very difficult to duplicate. However, with practice and meticulous note taking it is possible to produce similar but not identical prints.

Begin your own exploration at www.VickiReed.com and see the work at the Steenbock Gallery. The National Juried Exhibition runs from February 28 until April 8, with an opening reception scheduled for March 4, from 6-9pm. 

NJE photographer: Ted Hamm

Sheboygan photographer Ted Hamm, though curiously absent from the world wide web, is an active exhibitor in the Coalition of Photographic Arts  and Sheboygan Visual Arts events. Most recently a part of the 4th Annual CoPa Juried Show, Ted's calming landscape work belies his work day as Administrator at the 'Etude High School for the Arts and Academics in Sheboygan.

Ferns, James Homestead Trail, silver gelatin print, 17" x 21" [$290]

We are pleased to welcome Ted to the Steenbock!!

Come see Ted's work in person at the exhibit from February 28 until April 8.  Who knows, maybe you'll even MEET Ted at the opening reception, scheduled March 4 from 6-9pm.  Sheboygan's not that far....