Ray Rogers
Raychel Rogers is a self-employed artist residing in Southern California where she is an exhibiting and published artist working to grow a freelance and commission-based arts practice. Ray has been an exhibition preparator at both the Museum of Ventura Country and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara in California. She also has taught fundamentals of photography as an expressive art for grade school students. Ray recieved her Master's Degree in Fine and Studio Arts at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and received her Bachelor's of Arts Degree in English Language and Literature/Letters from the Univeristy of Oregon. She also received a scholarship for postgraduate studies in Art History and Studio Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Prints in the portfolio are 35mm Kodak Portra film, digital C prints, 16" X 24", 2014-2022, $500 each.
Joseph Finkleman
The art of the banal has always fascinated Joseph. The quotidian nature of the urban landscape has always ingrigued him. He has viewed most all photographs as having discernible information. However, information with context is understandable. Information without context, on the other hand, is delicious. It is just that experience, information without context, that Joesph does a lot of. Once the context is removed, the information floats in that enigmatic mystery that lends itself to our imagination.
To Joesph these glass and steel buildings now look like billboards advertising stories written in an unknown alien language. He learned to read upside down and backwards at a very early age. Words right from the beginning were just pictures that had sounds. He has always wanted to work with a composter who would write musical scores to each story translating the picture word to a musical word.
Joseph has photographed at this point in time in over 13 cities, collecting these images both here in the United States and abroad.
Joseph Finkleman was born in Hollywood, perhaps that has influenced his work. He has been a serious photographer for 70 years. He sold his first print when he was 12 years old. Finkleman worked as a commercial photographer from the age of 19 until he was 45. He gained a BFA and a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He was in his 110th exhibition in 2024. Finkleman has studied literature in four languages. He is most grateful for English translations, however. He trained as a photojournalist. That documentary mindset has remained steadfast for the last 55 years. He has completed on graphic novel named "Happy Tooth". He has written libretto for chamber opera. He and his wife have had a poetry chapbook published. He has been a Spoken Word performing poet for 35 years. He, his wife, and their four cats reside in Northern California.
Prints in the portfolio are digital prints, 16" X 20", 2015-2024, $375 each.
Fern Nesson
"The Shape of Content"
"Form is the outer shape of an idea." — Ben Shahn (1957)
Fern received her MFA from from Maine Media College in 2018. During her time at school, she developed a practice of studying non-representational photography in parallel with other disciplines that also operate by abstraction. Over the past four years, Fern has exhibited mixed media projects consisting of essays, photographs and videos on such diverse subjects as: Abstract Photography and Physics ("E=mc²); Abstract Photography and the Art of Translation ("L'Invitation Au Voyage"); Abstract Photography and Theoretical Mathematics ("The Mind of God"); Abstract Photography and the Nature of Time ("All Here, All Now").
This portfolio,"The Shape of Content", finds the energy and artistic potential in pure symbols. Symbols are the purest form of abstraction. Not only do they merely communicate meaning, they are energetic actors in the dance of life.
In our youth, letters and numbers seemed mysterious and strangely alive. But once we became adept at manipulating them for practical purposes, we risked losing sight of the active role that they could play in stimulating our thoughts and our actions.
Just as an evocative photograph of a scene can (re)open our eyes to the universe around us, a lively image of a symbol can revive our interest in its power. What had become routine and dull can once again become exciting, energizing, meaninghful.
Fern's photographs reveal the pattern, rhythm, and interrelatedness of our most quotidian symbols, capturing their uniquely energy and awakening our senses to their power, beauty and significance.
Fern L. Nesson is a graduate of Harvard Law School. She received an M.A. in American History from Brandeis and an M.F.A in Photography from the Maine Media College. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She practiced law in Boston for twenty years and subsequently taught American History and Mathematics.
Nesson's photographs have been shown internationally in solo exhibitions at the Politecnico University in Torino, Italy, Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France, Ph21 Gallery in Budapest, Hungary and at The University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. In the United States, Nesson has had solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, at MIT and Harvard, and at the Beacon Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts, the Pascal Gallery in Rockport, and Maine, and Through This Lens Gallery in Durham, NC.
Upcoming solo exhibitions include: "E=mc²" in Budapest , Hungary, "les Consolationsde la Poèsie" in Arles, France, "Alchemy" in Rome, Italy" and "The Music of the Spheres" in Durham, North Carolina.
Additionally, Fern's work has been selected for numerous juried exhibitions in the U.S. and in Barcelona, Rome and Budapest.
Nesson's photobooks, Signet of Eternity and WORD, won the 10th and the 12th Annual Photobooks Award from the Davis-Orton Gallery. Her photo essays appear regularly in France Today.com, Bonjour Paris.com and The LIving New Deal.com. Her photography can be found at www.fernlnesson.
Prints in the portfolio are digital archival prints in limited edition of 12, 48" X 48", 2023, $3,000 each grid.
FEATURE DATES - MAY - OCTOBER, 2024
These highly talented photographers are featured here for the 2024 issue of Portfolio Platform. Portfolio Platform provides the focus of a streamlined online presence providing the opportunity for photographers to showcase a portfolio of photographic work prominently. The portfolios are available for patrons of the gallery to go online and view, learn about the photographers and their work through the images and biographies and artist statments, and have the opportunity to purchase photographs.
PORTFOLIO PLATFORM 2024
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Shari Ameling, Middleville, MI;
Denita Benyshek, Wichita, KS;
Richard Dickson, Barcombe, Lewes, UK;
Joseph Finkleman, Woodland, CA;
Chris Monette, Toronto, ON, Canada;
Fern Nesson, Cambridge, MA;
Michael Nowotny, Milwaukee, WI;
Ray Rogers, Santa Barbara, CA;
Lev Spiro, Los Angeles, CA;
Stephen Curtis Wilson, Washington, IL;
Paul Yurkovich, Madison, WI.
Shari Ameling
"Mountains, Glaciers, Water"
The series "Mountains, Glaciers, Water" explores the wonderful views of nature in and around Alaska and Vancouver. These images are meant to be easy and joyful to look at, there is beauty all around us and all you have to do is look. Looking at one of these images can take you somewhere besides where you are physically. It can take you to a place you've been before, one you dream of going to, or one that you can enjoy from your own home, without ever being there in person.
Shari has been taking pictures for many years, but did not get serious about photography until 2016 when she took a formal photography series course at Coursera. These courses were taught by professors from her alma mater, Michigan State University. Since 2016, she has traveled to Alaska twice and has gone out west several times. Shari enjoys taking photos on her vacations and also enjoys taking photos in her own home state of Michigan. She has had several photos exhibited at exhibitions including Charlton Park, Hastings, MI; Lowell Arts Exhibition, Lowell, MI; the Blue Exhibition, Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS; and a Winter Exhibition at Biafarin.com.
Prints in the portfolio are archival pigment prints, 16"" X 20", 2019-2023, $300 each.
Denita Benyshek
As a creator, Denita is a polyglot. She speaks many artistic languages, including drawing, painting, jazz vocals, autoethnographic research, dance, theater, and performance. Sometimes a photograph serves as inspiration for a drawing or painting and sometimes the photograph is so completely itself that it stands alone as a compelling, evocative image. For these photographs, she prefers black and white to better reveal the textures and the play of light and shade.
Denita does not go out to take photographs. She is a seer, observing what is around her. When she was a young child, her eyesight was very poor and not corrected with glasses until she was in the third grade. Suddenly, she could see leaves and bark! Children on a playground! For her, seeing is a wonderous miracle. Every day, she is deeply engaged in seeing.
As a highly visual person, Denita is captured by seeing something that has a strong composition while also being meaningful as a story or object. For her, photography is a way to share some extraordinary vision that is a fleeting moment in time, with you.
Dr. Benyshek was born in north central Kansas, in a communtiy of Czech immigrants. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas. She earned a BFA from Wichita State University, an MFA from University of Washington, an MA and PhD in humanistic and transpersonal psychology from Saybrook University. In 2018, she was initiated by three Korean shamans. She is a published researcher on contemporary artists as shamans. Solo exhibits were presented in Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Santa Fe, NM; Sun Vallery, ID; Anchorage, AK, and elsewhere. Her artwork has been included in numerous group shows including at the Bellevue Art Museum, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Museum of NW Art, Coos Bay Museum, and Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. Her work is in the collections of Snoqualmie Point Park, University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, King County Ethnic Heritage Collection, and the Glass Museum in Ebeltoft, Denmark.
In 2022, Dr. Benyshek and her son returned to Wichita. She was selected as the Botanica Gardens Artist in Residence by OpenStudios. Dr. Benyshek recently received the Enabling Artist's Grant from the Koch Cultural Trust. She will be presenting her research at the 2024 Creativity and Madness Conference in Santa Fe, NM.
Prints in the portfolio are digital photos, 2022-2024.
Richard Dickson
Recovering from major surgery and a toxic personal environment Richard found solace, healing and restoring fitness in the South Downs in England. This hilly ridge stretches along the southern coast, steeped in ancient history, dotted with villages and farmsteads dating back a thousand years. Long established pathways still connect major towns and now are popular for recreation. The land is still farmed, with open areas of large, sweeping, gently curving fields of grain and pasture. There is bareness to it with few trees, some in groves or mysterious, straight-line runs, and there is much prickly gorse. It is very exposed taking the upsweeping winds from the coast a few miles to the south and leads to the rugged chalk cliffs by the sea. Even on a quiet day the wind leaves its evidence on the windswept trees, living sculptures of its force.
In late summer Richard did many walks along these hills with magnificent open views to sea or inland over the hedge-rowed fields of the farms below. He found them bucolic and peaceful as you wander into a space shared with sheep and cows grazing, calmly, contentedly; a spiritual place to be. Still, the landscape has a harshness; the chalky soil, sometimes just bare chalk; rutted, pebbly pathways; the prickly gorse and wind bent trees; the unbounded pasture and fields or craggy, chalk cliffs; the unsettling sense of exposure to the elements.
Richard loves experimenting with all photographic material. Often images produced show another layer of meaning or sense of the subject. He obtained some boxes of long expired Polaroid sheet film that normally produces an interesting paper type negative. The chemicals were long gone but he found a way to develop the negative normally and it produced an image that from the first test shot in his backyard, he immediately knew that the images produced from this material would emphasise that stark, rugged show and beauty that felt the sense of dualtiy of the Downs. The images here are records of Richard's journey as he was making that recovery.
Richard Dickson is a photographer from England. He has been photographing since a child and growing up in many countries opened his senses to different cultures, moulding his view of the differing world but also the commonaltiy of people and places and how we fit into our surroundings.
He has had a varied career and now works as a therapist. Only over the last 10 years has he had the opportunituy to devote more time to photography, working on projects, seeking exhibiting opportunities and organizing his catalogue.
He works with traditional materials and processes and explores the use of any photographic material often in extended or unconventional ways, which can bring a different interpretation or redeem another facet to a scene.
Traveling in the Southwest USA he was inspired by the poetical descriptions in the works of Willa Cather and he brought together his images and her words in a collection then spent a period as Artist in Residence at the Willa Cather Foundation in 2019 ending with an exhibition of large format, direct printed, photographic works titled "Beauty in the Ordinary".
He has had several works selected for exhibition internationally and in the UK including The London Group Open in 2017; ING Discerning Eye 2022, London; Midwest Center for Photography, Wichita, KS; Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; NYC4PA, New York, NY, and others. He has won awards and is published in the INPHA* photographic annual produced by Manifest Gallery.
Prints in the portfolio are inkjet prints from Polaroid, 8" X 10", 2023, $275 each.
Michael Nowotny
"Stadiums of America"
Michael's photography is a passion. Currently working on an art photography book 'Stadiums of America' A photographic, artistic, abstract view of Football, Baseball, and College stadiums across the USA, from east to west.
For the past 40 years, Michael has been creating images with a camera. A spark was lit helping a friend build a darkroom in his basement and from there a passion had blossomed, and since then – he's been learning as he goes.
The strong interest in photography continued throughout his career in law enforcement. He always found opportunities to pursue the craft. Taking on weddings or just finding inspiration with a camera in his hands walking through the city. Even police photography assignments that were part of his ‘day job’ provided opportunity to grow with photography. Having his work accepted in juried shows at the Milwaukee Art Museum (Cudahy Gallery) and the Coos Bay Art Museum (Coos Bay, Oregon) in 1982 was an early defining moment for his photography. This has been a love in his life.
In 2003, Michael retired from law enforcement and then the fun really began. Taking a job with a local photographer as his assistant refueled the passion especially for fine art photography. He became a member of the Coalition of Photographic Arts of Southeatern Wisconsin, an organization dedicated to the exhibition, education and awareness of fine art photography. In 2012, Michael was elected to the position of President of the organization, a proud moment putting him in a lead role with some of the finest photoartist’s in Milwaukee, Illinois, Michigan and even Texas.
In the fine art world, he has participated in eight "Pancakes & Booze Underground Art Shows" in Chicago, having success at selling his images. "Pancakes & Booze Underground Art Shows" take place in 30 cities nationwide as well as in Canada, Berlin, London and Paris. In juried shows he has been accepted and exhibited at the Arts Mill (Grafton,WI), Art*Bar (Milwaukee, WI), Walkers Point Center for the Arts (Milwaukee, WI), Merridian Street Gallery (Indianapolis, IN), PhotoPlace Gallery (Middlebury, VT), Grosse Point Artist Association (Grosse Pointe Farms, MI), West End Gallery (Waterford, WI), Wustrum Gallery (Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI), Walter Phiel Gallery (Minot, ND), the Midwest Center for Photography (Wichita, KS) The EXibit Fine Art Center and Gallery (Morris, IL), Morpho Gallery (Chicago, IL), (Chicago Art and Funk Fest Chicago, IL), Drury on C-Street Gallery (Springfield, MO), NO Studios (Milwaukee, WI) Northville Art House (Northville, MI), Byrn Du Mansion (Granville, OH), Spiva Gallery (Joplin, MO), Willard Gallery (Idaho Falls, ID), Buchanan Arts Center (Monmouth, IL) Praxis Gallery (Minneapolis, MN}, lensculture magazine, Camelback International Online (Bronze Award).
Being a life long motor racing enthusiast. Michael has worked exclusively with the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and other Indycar and Formula One tracks as well as work for the SportsCar Club of America, International SportsCar Association, and American Motorcycle Association. These images can be found at www.fastcarphotos.com
In 2017, 2018 and 2019 Michael had received an International Honorable Mention with the TZ International Photographic Community (Zebra Award) for his Black & White Photography, 2018 Community Choice Award with ViewBug Online Photo Sharing Service, 2020 Best in Show NO Studios Coalition of Photographic Arts ‘Beauty’.
Michael describes his photography ‘as not a hobby, not a business, but a passion’. Yes that’s it, it’s a passion. A passion that helps him make sense of life itself.
Prints in the portfolio are inkjet prints, 2024.
Lev Spiro
"Thin Places"
"Thin Places" are what the ancient Celts named rare locales where the separation between our earthly world and another, spiritual world becomes hazy and indistinct. They're places where one feels touched by the otherworldly, a feeling not necessarily transmitted by our known senses.
This series grew out of conversations with Lev's father, a religious man despite his breaking a 16-generation chain of rabbis to become a psychiatrist. Before he passed in 2023, Lev had confided in him that for him, deep feelings of spirituality never occurred in the practice of religious observance but rather in the embrace of the natural world - in these "Thin Places", where time seems to slow, something resonates in him, and he experiences an unexpected sense of connection to a world beyond his consciousness.
"Thin Places" are elusive - they may only reveal themselves when the light dances with them to a very specific rhythm. They speak to us through vibration more than sight or sound. Where the veil between this world and the other becomes porous, these are "Thin Places".
Lev L. Spiro is a fine art photographer whose work tries to convey the sense of mystery and wonder he finds in the natural world.
His work has been juried into more than 55 exhibitions, including Davis Orton Gallery, Southeast Center for Photography, Ph21 Gallery, Midwest Center for Photography, and Praxis Gallery, as well as featured in publications including What Will You Remember?, Dodho Magazine, Art Ascent Magazine (Gold Artist, June 2021; Silver Artist, July 2023) Shadow & Light Magazine, All About Photo, and Black + White UK. He currently teaches "The Artful Garden" for Santa Fe Workshops.
Lev is also known for his work directing over 165 television episodes, pilots and features, including Emmy-award winning series such as Orange is the New Black, Modern Family, Weeds and Arrested Development. His films "Minutemen" and "Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie" won a Director's Guild nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program, respectively.
Lev lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, writer/producer Melissa Rosenberg and their two dogs T. Beau and Luna, who often accompany him and make helpful suggestions as he makes images.
Prints in the portfolio are archical pigment inks on Canson Infinity Baryta Prestige II, 10.66" X 16", edition of 15 + 2 AP, 2023, $750 each.
Stephen Curtis Wilson
While Stephen does not work exclusively in black and white/monochrome, monochorome is critical to achieving a particular tone, texture, or sensitivity. The photographs assembled here reflect a particular grit, an emotional-nod to the every-day, and a visual understanding of the region where he's lived all his life: Central Illinois. Stephen is interested in the artfulness of the world around him and seeks out reminders of humanness, culture, and community.
Wilson was a medical-surgical and generalist photographer, writer, and communication specialist in the health care and library science fields for 36 years - cut steel in a foundry and drove a truck for a time. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois, a juried Illinois Artisan for Photography - Illinois State Museum, and a member of the Peoria Art Guild, Peoria, IL.
Prints in the portfolio are archival pigment prints, 8" X 12", 2018-2023, $200 each.
Paul Yurkovich
"Postcards from the Last Mile"
As a mail carrier, Paul is offered a unique perspective. He sees the same land, people, pets and farm animals, and drives the same roads and yet, every day is different. On these drives, changes come big and small. Atmospheric and seasonal changes, and the encroachment of land development.
"Postcards from the Last Mile" is at once a photographic survey and diary. It is a document of the compromised and yet-uncompromised landscape, and of those living within. It is also a visual journal of a public worker from a long-standing institution making daily rounds. Largely influenced by the New Topographics movement and the landscapes and portraits of Joel Sternfield, Alec Soth and ilk, his objective is that these images evoke nostalgia, appear timeless and ever-present, and question how and why these new developments are starting to appear as natural as the land they are replacing.
Paul Yukovich is a fine art/documentary photographer and rural mail carrier currently based in Madison, WI. He received his BFA from Columbia College, Chicago, IL in 2003. Influenced by the New Topographics movement, color photography of banal landscapes, he almost exclusively finds his subjects and scenes from behind the wheel of his car, and more recently from his mail truck.
Prints in the portfolio are archival inkjet prints, 5" X 7", 2021-2023, $50 each.
Chris Monette
Chris is passionate about image creation. For over 20 years he has been bringing a keen sense of observation and an inspired vision to the projects he's worked on, mostly specializing in documentary style content pieces. Image making is a detailed process that Chris excels at, with an eye that always looks for creative an engaging approaches. Whether it is landscapes or portraits, Chris always looks for what is “alien“ in his subjects, the characteristics and traits that make something that is familiar seem other worldly. Chris’s work has appeared in several publications. His book “The Roads We’ve Ridden” is an examination of road architecture, but from a cyclist’s perspective. He plans to expand this project to include the design of highways and roads from around the world.
Prints in the portfolio are inket prints, 2018-2023.
