The Whitewater Arts Alliance is hosting “Eyes of Whitewater,” an exhibition of the works of UW-Whitewater faculty and staff photographers, on display Thursdays through Sundays, June 8-29 at the Cultural Arts Center, 402 West Main St., Whitewater. An opening reception will be held on Sunday, June 8 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to the public.
The exhibition will feature a wide variety of photographic styles, including: sports photography, landscapes, travel, documentary, nature, and as both digital and traditional photographic art.
The photographers included in the exhibition are University of Wisconsin-Whitewater faculty and staff. The exhibition offers a diverse array of perspectives and subjects, and provides an integrative yet expansive view of the many ways in which the world is seen and captured through the eyes of UW-Whitewater photographers.
Meet the photographers
Denis Dale, UW-W Professor of Art and Design, has a varied portfolio of film and digital photography that spans decades. His travels internationally continue to be an inspiration for him and his unique approach to “making pictures” from multiple photographs results in large high resolution and seamless photo works. Hyper-realism, patterned-color studies, cultural commentary and detailed visual and spiritual immersion are terms viewers have used in examining Dale’s work.
Andre Ferrella graduated with a bachelor’s degree as a Medical Illustrator and Fine Artist from the University of Toledo/Toledo Museum of Art School of Design and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From a young age, Andre Ferrella has been a seeker inspired to use art as a means to express beauty, spirituality and the divine.
On his life-path, Ferrella has sought, studied and embraced the inter-connectedness of the universe with his discovery of an organic photographic process called “The Living Pictures” that bridged the gap between microcosmic and macrocosmic space.
As a boy growing up in New Berlin, Tom Ganser recalls playing with his dad’s box camera and using his brothers Gary and Dave as models for what he liked to call “artistic” photos – Gary biting on the stem of a flower from their mom’s garden and long exposure photos of the night sky. During his employment at UW-Whitewater he took photos of College of Education, some university events and several Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and University of Wisconsin System meetings.
Since his retirement from UW-Whitewater in 2011, he regularly contributes photos and stories to the Whitewater Register and the other Southern Lakes Newspapers publications in southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, as well as the Daily Jefferson County Union.
Mark Lawrence McPhail was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he became interested in photography as a teenager. As an undergraduate he studied photography at Emerson College, in Boston Massachusetts, where two of his photographs were published in the Emerson Review. During graduate school he worked part time as a photojournalist for the Campus Connection in Amherst, Massachusetts, and later as a photographer and editorial consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation.
McPhail’s photography has been featured in the academic journal Critical Studies in Mass Communication, and has been exhibited at the Mac Worthington Gallery in Columbus, Ohio; the Blue Heron Gallery in Liberty, Indiana; in Dallas, Texas at the Cerulean Gallery, the Mckinney Avenue Contemporary Gallery, Café Izmir, and the African American Museum; and at the Crossman Gallery, Roberta’s Gallery, Studio 84, First Citizen’s Bank, the SweetSpot, and the Cultural Arts Center in Whitewater.
Craig Schreiner works as campus photographer in the office of Marketing and Media Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has a journalism degree from Northern Illinois University with an emphasis in photojournalism. Before coming to Whitewater in 2012, he worked for 16 years as a photojournalist on the staff of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. He teaches photojournalism part-time at Madison Area Technical College in Madison.
“Photography is most valuable to me for its ability to capture moments and to tell the stories of ordinary people,” Schreiner said. His first book, “One Small Farm,” the story of two brothers who farm 180 acres in Dane County, was published in September. Schreiner lives in Middleton with his wife, Lisa and they have three sons, ages 14, 18 and 22. He remembers many mentors and inspirations and one of them, John H. White of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, once advised, “Take pictures with the camera of your heart,” the best advice Schreiner said he’s received.
Tapan Shah has been a professional photographer for nearly 10 years. Shah began taking photos at the athletic and music camps at UW-Whitewater and his photos have been used in hundreds of brochures and publications across campus. For the past few years, Tapan has been taking photos for the Spring Fashion Show for All Abilities at the Monona Terrace, sponsored by the Waisman Center and the Dane Country Department of Human Services. He has used his photography passion and hobby to capture photos of nature, birds, people, and whatever else he can find. The photos at the gallery and on Tapan’s website (tapanshah.net) are the moments captured and remembered, and each photo has a story to go along with it.
The photos of former campus photographer Gregg Theune have become part of the history of UW-Whitewater by capturing dynamic images of people and events over three decades. His work has spanned the transition from film to digital imaging and the tenures of five chancellors. Theune grew up in Whitewater, the second of four children of Warren and Virginia Theune, who met as students at UW-Whitewater. After graduating from High School, he enrolled in a 1974 UW study abroad program in Copenhagen, Denmark where he discovered a passion for photography.
After returning home, Theune enrolled at UW-Whitewater where a black and white photography course clinched his career decision. In 1976, Theune transferred to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cinema and Photography. After working as a photographer for Marquette University in 1979, Theune came back to UW-Whitewater in 1980, serving the News & Publications and Graphics departments. He was also chief photographer for the campus “Minneiska” yearbook.
Theune was honored as the first recipient of UW-Whitewater’s Academic Staff Excellence in Service Award in 1985 and has received numerous awards for his photography and graphic design work including first place in the professional division of the People’s Photography Show in Fort Atkinson and first place for best photography and publication design at the UW System Communicators Awards competition.
In 1985, Theune facilitated the merger of the graphic design and photography services of Learning Resources and was the director of the Photo/Graphics department for twenty years. He then served as University photographer in Marketing and Media Relations from 2005 until his retirement in 2012.
The Whitewater Arts Alliance’s Cultural Arts Center is located on 402 West Main St. in the historic White building near the Birge Fountain. Parking is available behind the building, with an elevator available from the parking lot entrance and on side streets.
