MICHAEL H. LORD GALLERY ANNOUNCES ARTIST TALK WITH “10 WEEKS” PHOTOGRAPHER MIKE REBHOLZ
ON APRIL 15, 2012, AT 3 PM
(APRIL 1, 2012)—The Michael Lord Gallery is pleased to announce an upcoming artist’s talk with fine art photographer Mike Rebholz in conjunction with his solo exhibition at the gallery titled “10 Weeks.” The talk will start at 3 pm on Sunday, April 15th, in the gallery located at 1090 N. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, and the public is invited to attend.
Rebholz will talk about the phenomena that inspired “10 Weeks.” In Madison, Wisconsin a subculture of people creep from the interiors of their winter homes for ten weeks each season to stake a claim out on the lake for a little ice fishing. When Rebholz discovered this world, he entered into a period of observation and discovery that informed a stunning body of work. “10 Weeks” represents the length of the fishing season, in which he captures this life through exquisite, sometimes eerie, and intimately revealing photographs.
“I stumbled upon this project,” explains Rebholz. “Madison is located on an isthmus. Between my neighborhood and the capitol is a large causeway, and as I was driving into town back and forth for a few days while the ice was starting to firm up, I noticed a shack out on the ice.”
Being an architectural photographer by trade, Mike was intrigued by the structure. One Saturday morning after a few nights of rain when the fog was particularly dense, he ventured out upon the frozen lake for the first time ever to find the shack and capture its surreal beauty with his camera.
“I had thought about these shacks before,” he mentions. “They are like these things that crop up during the winter that we observe seeming to float out on the lake. They appear to be close, but it’s actually about a half a mile walk to reach them. I started to think about the fisherman who spend all this time out there and the people themselves became fascinating to me as well.”
The second time Mike walked out onto the ice, he met a couple of the fishermen who were hospitable and enjoyed showing him their shacks. He started to spend more time visiting the different structures and even took interior shots on occasion. He learned there was a whole subculture of fishermen, whose lives revolved around these ten weeks per year. He soon ventured out to an encampment where a whole shanty culture hauled out their hand built shacks for the fishing season, including the new young turks with their modern pop up shacks who would drive them out on the back of trailers or four wheelers. He reveled at the renegades, like the guy who coated his shack’s interior with spray foam, turning it into a bizarre, yellow cave.
“The shacks were really interesting to me,” he describes. “As the weather would change from cold and rainy to intensely bright and beautiful, I would have all these different settings in which to photograph them. But they always seemed to be floating alone out in space, regardless of the climate. I loved knowing that I was capturing this world that only existed for a short period of time each year.”
So far this series consists of 90 photographs. They were first shown last year at Review Santa Fe 2011, one of the most prestigious annual photography shows. Rebholz has been invited to this year's Review Santa Fe 2012 as well. He has produced two books of the photographs that showcase the shacks; one focuses on the external architectural beauty as the other explores the interiors. He also donated a set of the prints and digital files to the Wisconsin Historical Society for its archives.
The exhibition “10 Weeks” opens on April 4th and runs through May 6th.
MICHAEL H. LORD GALLERY features a wide range of contemporary art across all genres including painting, photography, video, installation, public and sculpture work. The gallery is located at 1090 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262. For more information, contact Sam Heaton at 760-699-8957 or visit online at www.michaelhlordgallery.com.
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