Carol Wansley (outtake, crop) ©2025 Patrick T. Power
I've been on a negative scanning jag of late, gearing up to complete a project that I should have taken care of years ago, so I thought I'd write about this little project of mine back in the mid-1990s.
In late 1994, after I'd left my job at Michigan State University, I tried to make a go of freelancing as a photographer. I got hired by the Lansing Art Gallery to photograph an exhibition by Brian Whitfield in November of that year, and again to photograph items in the gallery for their upcoming Holiday Art Market. I had a conversation with the gallery director at the time, Karen Stock, and I asked about the possibility of having a show of portraits at the gallery sometime, which, as I think back on it now, I had no business suggesting such a thing as my portrait experience up until that time had been fairly limited to whatever I would have done while at MSU, along with an internship I'd done for school in the summer of 1980. But I had an idea. I don't recall now when the specifics of the idea had hatched in my mind but the plan was to photograph a number of Lansing-area visual artists in a studio setting. I had purchased a used Mamiya RB67 a few years earlier, along with a lighting kit, a softbox, and background gear, and I was champing at the bit to use it for purposes other than taking pictures of the kids and the occasional group photograph for hire.
Because my then-wife Penny was an artist, I'd become acquainted with quite a few other artists through her, so after getting the go-ahead from Karen, I made up a wish list and began making phone calls and scheduling people. At the same time, I managed to procure in-kind support from Kodak (film), John Manning at Photo Connexion (photographic paper), and Larry Carr at Photo Mart (darkroom facilities). Since I didn't have a studio per se, I had to wrangle up space somewhere. Penny had graciously (I think) agreed to let me use her ArtSpace studio/classroom when it was free of activity, but with as many classes as she was conducting, I had to work around her schedule. I also had to find an alternative for when it wasn't free.
I had volunteered a bit around that time for the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse, a local folk music and dance organization, mostly helping to set up and tear down sound equipment or re-arrange seats for their concerts, but also on several occasions to photograph the Residents Night performers. Residents Night was a concert made up of local musicians donating their time to raise funds for the organization. (For a spell, I also served as Residents Night Co-ordinator.)
Residents Night, 20 October 1993 ©2025 Patrick T. Power
Most of the Fiddle's concerts were held at the Unitarian Universalist Church in East Lansing for a more-than-reasonable fee of one dollar, if memory serves, so I checked with the church's caretaker, Regina Fry, to see if I might also be able to rent the room off the main room of the church. I got the OK, so my first bunch of photo sessions were set up, with the first one to be held at ArtSpace on 19 December 1994. Barb Morris, owner of Otherwise Gallery, which was right next door to ArtSpace on Turner Street in Lansing's Old Town area, was the first; Jill Lareaux was the second. For Barb, I had an idea of what I wanted to do and had sketched it out on paper, but with Jill, I just winged it. She appeared in a beautiful white blouse that I felt had be photographed against a dark backdrop as it seemed to shimmer.
The next twelve would be done at the church on three separate days:
20 December 1994 — Dennis Preston and Brian Whitfield
26 January 1995 — Jim McKenzie, Jane Rosemont, Carol Wansley, Paul Thornton, and Regina Fry
1 February 1995 — James Adley, Kate Darnell, Clif and Jane McChesney, Liz Wylegala, and Bruce Thayer
I did the the next five at ArtSpace on the 9th of February:
Robert Busby, Mark Beard, Jean Rooney, Mark Mahaffey, and Kelly Boyle
Larry Carr at Photo Mart provided a darkroom for me to print the 11-inch by 14-inch prints, and I pumped out two of each portrait—one for the show and one to give to each artist. I was certain that I'd properly exposed the film for everything so I decided to not use polycontrast paper (I think I used Ilford paper) for the prints. Without bogging you down with technical details, I'll just say that while that choice worked out for me for the most part, there was one portrait, Jane Rosemont's, for which I wish I'd had just a little bit more control over the final print's contrast.
Then came the second week of February, and Penny informed me she wanted out of our marriage.
I don't recall now how it came about, but in early March, I took some time off from everything and took a train to Washington, D.C., where I stayed with a friend I'd met at a biomedical photo conference in Rochester, New York about ten years earlier. So much about that trip is a blur to me now. I don't know why I chose D.C.
Distance, I guess. And time.
Upon my return, and with less than a month to take the remaining portraits, print them, and get them framed, I dove back in, scheduling the remaining nine artists, including Penny, all of which took place at ArtSpace:
18 March 1995 — Teresa Petersen and Regina Fry (re-takes)
19 March 1995 — Margaret Meade-Turnbull and Barbara Hodge Borbas
25 March 1995 — Penny Krebiehl-Power
31 March 1995 — Mark Mahaffey (re-takes)
As for the two retakes, I'd made the mistake of showing Regina Fry the proofs from her session, something I hadn't done with anyone else. She didn't like them. My feeling was (and still is) that it was my project—I wasn't Olan Mills—and therefore had the right to choose the content of my show. She would refuse to participate in the project if I used them. I didn't want to be a dick about it so I relented and did a second session. Ultimately, I'm glad I did, as I do like my final choice, but I was perfectly happy with the first set. I was not at all happy with Mark Mahaffey's, however, so I sheepishly asked him to come back for another session.
I can't recall why, but I had to find another place to print my enlargements once all the portraits had been taken. Enter Bill Harrison at Custom Photographic. Unlike Photo Mart, where I hand processed the prints in trays, I ran them through a machine at Custom, which turned out to be a blessing as it cut down considerably on the time needed to get everything printed. My preference was hand-developing as I believed it to be a more archival process, but time was of the essence. With the printing finished, it was off to see Bill Hankins at Prints, Ancient & Modern to have everything framed for the show, which had to be hung on Monday the 3rd of April. The show would open the next day, and there would be an opening reception on the Sunday the 9th, coinciding with the 14th annual Botanical Images Competition. I'd informed Bill in advance as to the number of frames and their size (they were all something like 16-inch by 20-inch) so that once all the prints were done, his team could go at it.
During one of my trips to Prints, Ancient & Modern, Judith Taran, East Lansing's communications director, and wife of Irv Taran, a professor of art at Michigan State University, informed me that my portraits should have been taken in the artists' studios or in some way with their work. I stood there rather aghast that the wife of an artist would question another artist's choices. I can't recall how I responded, but I wondered if she similarly told her husband how to paint.
Everything went off as planned. There was a pretty good turnout of friends and family (my mom and sister-in-law even made it up from Toledo), along with a number of the artists and their friends. Nothing sold, although I didn't really expect any would. It wasn't intended a money-making venture.
An interesting thing happened once the show came down. My interest in photography took a nose dive. For a good five years leading up to the show, I had immersed myself in photography books and magazines. I'd spent a lot of time working on lighting techniques at work and at home. I had the kids pose for me, and occasionally got Penny to. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the artists and getting to know them a little bit as I completed this project, but all of a sudden, my interest fell flat, thanks mostly to what was going on at home. It wouldn't rekindle for almost ten years when I discovered Flickr.
As I look back on the experience, and as I look again at the contact proofs from all the portraits, I've come to have second and third thoughts about some of the choices I made for the show. I know that at least one other person other than Regina—Liz Wyegala—wasn't pleased with my selection, but in my defense, to know Liz is to know she's an emphatic way of speaking and often uses her hands when she does. I really felt it was representative. As is clear with many of the portraits, looking at the camera wasn't a requirement.
Also in retrospect, I was a fish out of water, so to speak. I didn't know the first thing about the etiquette of art exhibitions, and I know I didn't thank Karen Stock enough, or, I suspect, in a more appropriate fashion. As I alluded to above, I did give the participating artists who attended the show a copy of their portrait. Not all attended so I still have a handful stashed in a box with the negatives. As I was preparing to move to San Francisco in January of 2010, I contacted as many of the artists as I could and gave them the framed versions of their portraits. A few went unclaimed.
And sadly, in the thirty years since this project took place, seven of the artists have died: Mark Beard, Barb Morris, James Adley, Jim McKenzie, Clif and Jane McChesney, and Robert Busby. Mark Beard and Robert Busby were the biggest shocks as Mark died because he'd accidentally been given the wrong medication while in the hospital for a minor issue; Robert was murdered by someone he had given assistance to.
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