Current SE-WI Photo Exhibitions

Boy-o-boy, there’s a whole lot of neat shows going on right now in SE-WI. While I don’t know that I’ll make it to all of them, I sure hope I can make it to some of them…

Current WI Photo Exhibitions:

Racine: Wisconsin Photography 2009: RAM’s Wusum Museum of Fine Arts: till Nov 28, 2009: 90 works by 45 artists

Madison: Back in the World: Portraits of WI Vietnam Veterans: UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art: till Jan 3, 2010: 30 Large-format color portraits byJames Gill

Milwaukee: The Lifeboat Show: The Cedar Gallery: till Dec 5, 2009: Portraits by Francis Ford

Milwaukee: Persian Visions: Marquette’s Haggerty Museum: till Jan. 10, 2010: survey of contemporary Iranian photography-60 works by 20 photographers

Milwaukee: Something That Will Last: Live Artists Studio: ONE NIGHT ONLY-November 13, 2009; 6:00p-?: a number of B+W prints from Troy Freund, being shown in conjunction with Firestarter Films #6. $5 admission gets attendees a whole lot of short films, networking and artwork

Photo-Community: Jerry and John at Crivello’s

Mike Crivello’s has been a mainstay in the Milwaukee community for many, many years. When I graduated from Cardinal Stritch University, Mike Crivello’s provided my first full-time job in the photo-industry. The locally-owned chain of stores used to have more branches, but time and the economy have made that number diminish. Despite these hardships, Crivello’s is still the only “professional-level” store in the greater Milwaukee area. Like most stores in the area, Crivello’s keeps a healthy stock on Nikon and Canon cameras and lenses on their shelves, along with a multitude of camera bags, albums and other accessories. UNLIKE most area stores though, Mike Crivello’s (Brookfield location) ALSO keeps Leica, Mamiya, ProFoto and Quantum products in stock.

Probably the most important thing Mike Crivello’s has though, is their staff. Any store can put product on the shelves, but not every store can have the decades of experience that Crivello’s staff members have. Though I confess to not knowing everyone’s name, I know that I have never had a poor experience at Crivello’s and I often come away having learned something new about cameras.

Today I want to point to two particular members of the sales staff at Crivello’s because these two gentlemen have an encyclopedia set’s worth of photo-knowledge between them. Jerry Napel and I used to work together at Helix Photoart back in the late 90s. He has been in the photo-industry for over 30 years and besides all his photo-knowledge also knows a wealth about other tech-categories. In addition to his knowledge, Jerry’s also a real swell, friendly guy.

John Mills has also been at Crivello’s for around 15 years and knows as much about photo-history as he does about the current cameras on sale. John isn’t pushy, wants you to understand your photo-options, and like Jerry, is a real friendly, gregarious fellow.

I’m on my soapbox today because the Internet has changed the way we shop and that has generally been to the detriment of stores like Crivello’s. A local store can’t give you the same price as a NYC photo-store, but what a local store CAN do is give you a relationship, give you a face to relate to and can really take care of you because the salespeople know their customers. Local stores help our local economy–Big Box Stores and NYC photo-stores do not. So please, when you start shopping for the holidays, PLEASE consider buying local as much as you can!

Photo-tip: Jerry says the new, hot camera is the Canon Powershot S90. He showed it to me and it does seem to have some pretty nifty features.

To learn more about buying local, visit OurMilwaukee!

Boulevard Theatre: “Clarence Darrow”

This past weekend, I had a photo-shoot for the Boulevard Theatre, documenting scenes from their latest production-”Clarence Darrow.” “Clarence Darrow” was a one-man show pulled off very successfully by actor David Ferrie. It’s always impressive when one guy on stage can manage to hold your attention so effectively. It doesn’t hurt though, that the subject matter was very interesting too. Learn more about Clarence Darrow, early civil libertarian HERE.

Get ready and check your schedule for the Boulevard’s next production, “The Marriage of Bette and Boo”. If you’re on Facebook, learn more about the Boulevard HERE.