PhotoMidwest, whose members range from novice photographers to pros, has hosted an exhibit and festival every two years since its founding some 25 years ago. This year the Madison-based, volunteer-run nonprofit sought out a new partner for its 13th Biennial Exhibition and wound up with two: the Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) and Andy Adams.
Adams is a member of the visual arts team for ALL and a photo enthusiast who, among other things, founded the blog FlakPhoto 20 years ago. He now runs FlakPhoto Projects, which he describes as “a community hub focused on conversations about photography,” and recently rebooted his newsletter, FlakPhoto Digest.
Adams has high hopes for the upcoming juried exhibition, which showcases photographers from 13 Midwest states: “What we want to do is put Madison on the map for photography people.”
The exhibit, which runs Sept. 17-Nov. 9, is the signature event of the festival. It will feature work from more than 60 artists and fill ALL’s lower two galleries at its headquarters on Livingston Street. An opening reception on Sept. 27, 6-8 p.m., is part of the “festival weekend,” which also includes a photography speaker series on Sept. 28.
Ralph Russo, one of the founders and now vice president of PhotoMidwest (and an Isthmus board member), says the partnership with ALL brings the biennial exhibit “into a much more accessible space” and helps PhotoMidwest “expand its audience.”
“And then the partnership with FlakPhoto has given us a larger presence,” adds Russo. “30,000 people read [Adams’] newsletter, and he has a great social media presence.” Russo says Adams has also been a great mentor for his group with advice on how to promote the festival in general.
Anyone from the Midwest can submit up to three photos to the biennial exhibit. This year it is being juried by New York photographer Kris Graves, whose work around social movements and systemic inequalities in the United States has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art and in London’s Tate Modern.
Graves says he’s “excited to bring my knowledge to Madison.” He says he sees in the submissions an “array of different work” from portraits to landscapes to still lifes and from small film reels to blown up digital shots.
“For me it’s about trying to locate images that are memorable,” he adds.
To go alongside the biennial contest, Adams has curated a solo show with Illinois photographer Rashod Taylor, whose work explores, among other things, the Black experience. Adams is also curating ALL’s inaugural Flat File exhibition featuring 10 Midwestern photographers. The collection of 50 prints will be displayed during the festival weekend, and by appointment over the next two years.
PhotoMidwest is also producing two other exhibits as part of this year’s festival. “In Search of Awe,” which runs through Nov. 19 at the Overture Playhouse Gallery, features 52 land and cityscapes taken by PhotoMidwest members. “For the Love of Light, An Exhibition by PhotoMidwest Members,” opens Oct. 1 at the Pyle Center.
ALL’s co-founder Jolynne Roorda says the group’s acronym is intentional. When she helped start the self-described “little indie-art space” in November 2015 the goal was to build an art space for the community and driven by the community.
“We want everyone to be able to participate,” she says. “We want to create a campfire in here.” (See the article spotlighting ALL’s fall programming on p. 28.)
Diversifying the kind of media exhibited is part of that mission. For the past decade, as the group grew and expanded from a 500-square-foot space on the east side to its current three story, 10,000 square-foot-facility, photography was placed on a bit of a backburner in favor of other art forms, Roorda acknowledges.
But Adams says ALL has a “three-pronged approach” to grow its photography program this fall. In conjunction with the biennial exhibit, the group plans to “scale up” its lecture series with more talks from photographers, including the “day of lectures” on Sept. 28. Adams says Graves will also be in town that day to teach a workshop in the morning and deliver a keynote lecture on his practice.
The third prong is a documentary film series focused on photography Adams is curating with Jim Kreul, ALL’s public programs coordinator and a founding programmer for the Wisconsin Film Festival (and an Isthmus contributor). The movies are to be determined but screenings are scheduled for Oct. 17, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12.
