Julie Lindemann & Johnie Shimon: How to transition from analog to digital and not lose your artistic soul
Published by Barbara Baryenbruch Luhring April 21st, 2007 in 3W News.Photographers Julie Lindemann and Johnie Shimon have been making photographs together since the mid-1980’s. During that time their work has been as much about the process as it is about the subject.
The subject of their work are the lives of the people in the midwestern community where they live. Part of that community is Manitowoc, Wisconsin and in full disclosure, it’s the town where I grew up. I enjoyed a somewhat typical sixties childhood there, but I never really considered Manitowoc worthy of artistic attention. Well, Julie and Johnie’s stunning images of my “typical” hometown have changed my mind. The lush tones of their black and white photographs give viewers a window into the gothic reality that is small-town America. Rebellious teenages in the early 90’s; a locally iconic drive-in; a Farm Bureau Queen in her prom dress posing with her champion cow; an elderly man seated in front of his crumbling family home in rural Manitowoc County. They all make surprisingly interesting subjects for the artistic eyes of Julie and Johnie.
The processes involved in creating much of the work displayed on their website is a lesson in the history of photograhic art itself. It includes work done utilizing a Banquet camera as well as hand emulsified glass plates, processes that date back to photography’s early days. Their mastery of this art form is evident in both their color and balck and white work. Rich, dark, sensual tones define the images. And Julie and Johnie do for common folks what court painters did for royalty during the Renaissance, they portray their subjects with great respect. Wander through their website and I think you’ll agree.
Fast forward to 2007. How do forty-something artists who have mastered the art and craft of photography pass the time in age of new media? Julie and Johnie have made it look easy. Their souls may be analog, but their brains have turned digital! They have turned their website into a retrospective of their life’s work and in the process have secured commissions and solo shows. As part of their new gig as Assistant Professors of Art at Lawrence University, they dove in and created their own Flickr and YouTube sites in order to experiment with artistic expression in the world of social media. And they are also part of the online Saatchi Gallery whose home gallery is located in London. In addition, on the event of a recent solo show in Brooklyn, Julie and Johnie utilized the book print-on-demand website Lulu to create their show catalog. Yes, it is safe to say Julie Lindemann and Johnie Shimon have crossed over and embraced technology and the world is a better place for it.
Check out their website calendar for upcoming shows. Their current show is Wisconsin’s People on the Land from April 3 - May 20, 2007 at the James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Overture Center for the Arts 201 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin
And be sure to check out their documentation of the birth of the aluminum Christmas tree in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in their book Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree (Melcher Media, 2004).
More full disclosure: Gregg and I created the ShimonLindemann.com website.
Having lived through the earliest desktop computing days when even alphabetizing a mailing list was an arduous task, the ease of Flickr and YouTube seemed a miracle and enable us to our participate in a dialog beyond our Manitowoc, WIS environs. Other artists here do likewise–like Brad X who has built an audience for his work and perserved Manitowoc’s music and culture though his podcast and blog:
http://www.garagepunk.com/?p=547
http://bradx.wordpress.com/