Conclusion…here are a few snaps from the opening on Wednesday, July 25th. The show went very well and all the artists were happy to have their images seen by friends, family, and others!
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Sad that Summerfest is over? Well, get back into your live music mood with “The First Three Songs”; July 25th-July 27th, 2012.
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I’m very excited to announce that there is a new photo-exhibit opening in downtown Milwaukee next week! “The First Three Songs” is an exhibit of concert/music photography that will be on display at the Open MiKE space in the Plankinton Arcade of the Grand Avenue Mall. This show will be featuring the images of local concert photographers, and on opening night, July 25th, will include a special appearance by WI-born, but Seattle-based photographer Marianne Spellman! See her work HERE.
The show will open on Wednesday, July 25th, from 5:00-9:00. The show will also be open on Gallery Night, July 27th, 5:00-10:00.
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The featured photographers…
CJ Foeckler is a born and bred Milwaukeean with no plans of leaving anytime soon. He works as a Senior Designer & Photographer at a marketing company and is also a house photographer for 3 historic Milwaukee music venues. CJ is a self taught photographer with interest in portraiture and live music. He has had work published in Rolling Stone, Spin, The Wall Street Journal and has worked with musicians such as Rufus Wainwright,The Black Angels, Rilo Kiley and Yellow Ostrich.
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Marianne Spellman was born and raised in Wisconsin, and photographed her first live concert in 1978 (The Kinks at Milwaukee’s Performing Arts Center) with a rented SLR and one roll of film from Mike Crivello’s Cameras. She spent the next few years traveling around the USA photographing the Kinks. Her photos of the band are now featured on several current releases of the band’s albums: Sleepwalker, One for the Road, Give the People What They Want and others, as well as on the cover of the Ray Davies biography “I’m Not Like Everybody Else“. She returned to concert photography after more than 20 years hiatus, and has been thrilled to be able to photograph artists as diverse as X, Tony Bennett, the Flaming Lips, Black Lips, Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, Thee Oh Sees, Willie Nelson, and the Dandy Warhols, who featured two of her photos on their 2012 release, “This Machine.” Since 2008, Marianne has written daily on her own site, Popthomology, and also has freelanced for Bass Player, Seattle Weekly, KEXP, MTV Iggy, Back Beat Seattle, The Audio Perv, and others. She now lives in the Seattle suburbs with her family and Newfoundland dog.
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Erik Ljung is a Milwaukee based documentary photographer and filmmaker by way of California. Since moving to Milwaukee in 2008 he has been very active in photographing and filming the Milwaukee music scene. While working at the Pabst Theater, he also created a series entitled “Blue Ribbon Vision” which featured acoustic backstage performances. In 2011 Erik was awarded the CoPA Artist Incentive Award for his personal photographic work. He is currently working on a feature length documentary film about a historic building with a colorful past.
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Joe Kirschling has been a fixture on the Milwaukee music scene for more than a decade, drumming for bands like Menlo, The New Blind Nationals, Quinn Scharber and The Celebrated Workingman. Along with the drum set his mom bought him when he was 15, he carries a fast lens and a sharp eye for capturing the dynamic beauty of local and touring acts as they pass through dingy basements, rock clubs, and the big stages of The Pabst Theater and Turner Hall.
Currently he is building an Ultra Large Format camera capable of creating 16×20″ photos.
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Dale Reince is a self taught photographer born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. He started out his photography career by assisting Milwaukee photographers such as Peter DiAntoni and Tom Bamberger. Dale began photographing his friends’ bands at local clubs around the Milwaukee and Chicago areas. Eventually that led him to a position as a “House Photographer” at three premiere theaters in downtown Milwaukee: the Riverside Theater, the Pabst Theater and Turner Hall Ballroom. Dale worked at the theaters for five years, collecting thousands of images and building a portfolio that includes: Adam Lambert, the Avett Brothers, Aziz Ansari, BB King, Craig Ferguson, Dr. Dog, Emmylou Harris, the Flaming Lips, Frank Caliendo, Girl Talk, Kevin Smith, Local H, Louis CK, Patton Oswalt, Sharon Jones, the Decemberists, the Walkmen, Trampled by Turtles, Willie Nelson and ZZ Top.
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David Bernacchi has been a part of the Milwaukee photography scene for over 30 years, as a consultant, curator and gallery owner and of course, photographer. With a special love of photojournalism, David has curated exhibitions by Ralph Morse and John Dominis (LIFE Magazine legends) and James Stanfield of National Geographic for The VP Gallery. He has also hosted many local photographers in his own gallery – Light Ideas (2006-11)
David’s work is collected and has been published in Sports Illustrated, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Milwaukee Magazine, The Shepherd Express, OnMilwaukee and ESPN Wisconsin. Currently David is working on his own new sports website, a rental photo studio and new gallery coming this fall.
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Bob Cavallo’s classic photos of the Bruce Springsteen 1975 Uptown show will be on display!
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Troy Freund’s bio is right here.
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As a special treat to the first 50 people who come to the exhibit, there will be a special free poster give-away! This great poster was created by Matt Chic. This guy is so talented – look at the little sketch I threw together, and what he made from that! Amazing!
