|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
‘In Search of Lake Wobegon’ opens Aug. 24 (Aug. 11, 2008) – The Betty Strong Encounter Center on the Missouri Riverfront will present “In Search of Lake Wobegon,” a photographic exhibit by award-winning photographer Richard Olsenius. The show will open at noon Sunday, Aug. 24 and run through Oct. 17. Olsenius will make a personal appearance at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14. Admission to all events is free. In 1999, Garrison Keillor, of “Prairie Home Companion” fame, and Olsenius joined forces on a project that revolved around Keillor’s search for the real Lake Wobegon. According to its creator, Lake Wobegon is in central Minnesota. Here, Olsenius returned to his roots with a 4-by-5 camera and black-and-white film to put a real face on Keillor’s mythology. The story appeared in National Geographic magazine in December 2000, one of a handful of articles in recent years to be published in black and white. The following year the work was enlarged into a book by Keillor and Olsenius and published by Viking Studio Press. The book will be available in the Center’s store. The photographic exhibit was initially produced and exhibited by the Minnesota Historical Society. It also has been shown at the Edward Carter Gallery in New York City and Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Minnesota. Olsenius grew up in St. Paul and began his career as a photographer at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 1969. It was while driving the back roads of the Midwest on numerous assignments that Olsenius forged a love of the land and the people whose lives depended upon it. It was a love that has shaped his photography and filmmaking for more than 40 years as he continued to capture the diversity and quiet beauty of the American landscape. Over the course of his career, Olsenius has been known for his subtle, yet dramatic landscapes and portraiture, in both color and black and white. He won more than 100 state and national photography awards as well as the World Press Photo Award for his coverage of Cambodian refugees. His work has appeared in museum collections and numerous books and magazine stories. In 1981, he left the newspaper to pursue film and book production. His association with National Geographic began in 1986. His assignments allowed him to further explore the Midwestern landscapes he had grown to love. They also took him along the Alcan Highway and to Wyoming, the Puget Sound, the coast of Labrador and through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage. “If there is one thing that I look for in a photograph, it is a simple truth: something that everyone can relate to, something to remind us of what is important and lasting…It’s something immensely important to take home a special moment and have it forever.” Olsenius lives near the Chesapeake Bay where he and his wife publish books, compose music and produce films that celebrate a sense of place, people and landscape. To see more of his work visit www.americanlandscapegallery.com. The Betty Strong Encounter Center is a private, non-profit institution connected to the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, built and sustained by Missouri River Historical Development, Inc. (MRHD) and located on the Missouri Riverfront, exit 149 off I-29. Admission is free. Call 712-224-5242 or visit www.siouxcitylcic.com.
|
|
|
