Nothing 'plain' about Midwest exhibit

By Jamie Murnane
Staff Writer

Paul J. Clark An example of one of the works from the collection of Paul J. Clark’s garden photos.

When most people think of the Midwest, they usually picture flat land, straight roads, golden corn, small towns, overly friendly people and the occasional herd of cows. But when three photographers who work and live in the Midwest think of their home region, they picture, well, pictures.

As a result of this specific artistic vision, photos of things as unaffected as a flat Wisconsin road, an ordinary garden flower and never-ending rows of power lines are now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Photography inside the Alexandruff Center, 600 S. Michigan Ave., proving that landscape, even of the Midwest, has great aesthetic value.

"Midwest Landscape" is part of the Midwest Photographers Project. Established in 1982, it is the only program of its kind. It showcases the work of both prominent and obscure artists, including Tom Bamberger of Milwaukee, Paul J. Clark of Arlington Heights, Ill., and Terry Evans of Chicago, who is often a guest speaker at Columbia.

The photographers, while choosing different techniques, capture images that are very much alike in that they reveal the often-overlooked distinctiveness of the Midwest.

In the exhibit, Evans focuses on how landscape is physically shaped by using aerial shots of the seemingly endless middle-American prairies-both untouched and developed. Evans said she began her aerial work in '89 or '90 and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in '96 to "photograph the prairie from Canada to Texas."

When asked why she prefers aerial shots, Evans said, "What I like about aerial photographing is the way I explore and move into an image . Aerial photographs always reveal more information than I realize while I'm photographing."

While Evans takes shots from above, Bamberger uses digitally altered panoramas to make obvious the repetition in everyday scenery, such as highways or fields. Bamberger noted that while manipulating his images, he would often focus on small details such as a singular blade of grass for an extended period of time.

"I'm halfway between a photographer and a painter," he said. "Because these things have to be constructed too."

A far cry from panoramas, Clark's black and white, square photos are more than just wilting and blooming garden flowers. They also capture what he refers to as "the relationship between man and environment, or a controlled form of nature."

Clark said he first began thinking of photographing garden flowers on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day-in 1990.

While each of the photographers has a different technique in illustrating the Midwest, their work is proof that the landscape should be given a closer look.

"[The exhibit] is really interesting. . You never really think there's much to the Midwest, because it seems too ordinary or boring," Kyle Harter, a Chicago resident who frequents the museum, said of "Midwest Landscape." "But when it's put this way it seems completely different-interesting."

For a fresh-and free-perspective on the great Midwest, stop in the Museum of Contemporary Photography weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Thursdays until 8 p.m.) through Feb. 6. Call (312) 663-5554 or visit www.mocp.org for more details.