Q&A with Gerry Volgenau

A. Hmm, artist. I'd like to lay claim to that title. But I am not sure that I'm ready. Writer, yes certainly. Photographer, yes, based on a whole lot of published photos. But artist, I am not so sure. It feels like too grand a title for me.

Q. Okay then, how did you get into photography?

A. Despite some lapses that sometimes went on for years, it seems like I have always been shooting pictures. As a kid in Scarsdale, N.Y., I had a Brownie. Not a Hawkeye, which was bigger. But a Brownie which was tiny, about the size of a coffee mug. Through my eight-year-old eyes, I thought it took fine black-and-white pictures. Then after college, a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in Colombia and graduate school, I got a job handling public information for a 13-state education agency based in Boulder, Colorado. For that, I began shooting seriously with a single-lens reflex Pentax Spotmatic with (to my joy) three fixed lenses. The addition of photos to the agency publications proved popular. And because I got unlimited free film, I learned by shooting, shooting and more shooting. Mostly in black and white. Soon my photos were showing up not only in agency publications, but in books, magazines, newspapers and even graced a couple of album covers. For the younger crowd, long ago – only somewhat later than the Pleistocene Age – music came on round, skinny, flat black things with a hole in the middle. They were called records. Records with more than two songs were called albums. And their covers usually had a name (like say, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or In the Wee Small Hours), a list of the songs and some sort of picture on the front. The album cover as an art medium has pretty much disappeared

In 1976, I left Colorado for Michigan. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But I wanted to be a big city newspaper reporter. I joined the Detroit Free Press and over next 27 years was a street reporter, the science editor, Canada correspondent, roving national correspondent, an editor of national and foreign news and lastly, for seven years, the travel writer bopping about much of the world.

Especially in my incarnation as a travel writer, the photo editors kept saying, "Shoot more. Don't come back with a few shots, come back with scores, even hundreds. So I did. But ow I had upgraded to Nikons – F100s and F5. (I still shoot film) And the photo editors were delighted. And so was I.

Q. So during your newspaper career you were mostly a writer and editor, and in addition a photographer?

A.True.

Q. Did shooting for a newspaper affect your sense of photography?

A. You bet. I have been told that I "see pictures." That's a high compliment and may trace back to my art studies as a teenager. I thought I might be a painter. I was wrong. At any rate, I make pictures of all kinds of things. Some of them just pretty postcard shots which was good for travel stories. Although for the sake of candor, I confess that I hate sunset pictures. But for the most part, I look for photos that tell a story, or part of a story – photos more journalistic in character.

This display of framed photos at The Side Door Gallery focuses on scenic shots connected to islands of the Great Lakes. Of course, I like them. But take a look at the smaller, matted photos from around the world – Nepal, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy. These tend to be more journalistic. In essence that often means they have people in them.

People in photos is not bad. But in truth, buyers typically are not very interested in them. It's understandable. After all, most of us best like pictures of ourselves, not of someone we don't even know. But frankly, these shots are among my personal favorites.

Q. Since you left the Free Press in 2002, have you continued to write?

A. Yes. I have done freelance magazine pieces and written two books – "Islands: Great Lakes Stories" and "Shipwreck Hunter: Deep, Dark and Deadly in the Great Lakes." As the promotional flack goes, the books are on sale now at major bookstores, on line and at fine gas stations everywhere.

Q. Do you have another book in the works?

A. Yes. It's an historical novel set in the Civil War, an adventure story with – as you might guess – some strong connections to the Great Lakes.

Q. Tell us a little about yourself, personally.

A. I live in Ann Arbor in a small house which seemed big enough when I moved in 15 years ago, but now cannot hold my increasingly large collection of books. I may be forced to build an addition or move. I definitely am not getting rid of the books.

I'd rather ride my bike or paddle my kayak than drive my car – or any car. I crave wilderness. As some sage once said, "I'd rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city in the world."

I have two grown children of whom I am immensely proud. My daughter, Teresa, is an actress working toward her big break in Hollywood and making actual money as a personal fitness trainer. My son, Christopher, a one-time world-class athlete and now a fanatic skier, is married to the world's sweetest woman, lives and has a career in business in Denver.

Q. One last question about art. What do you think of the future of art photography?

A. It's dead, or at least in its final throes.

I think digital cameras have pretty much killed it. Not limited by having to pay for film, people can now take thousands of shots and go home to rework them with Photoshop. Often they get good results. You remember the story of a million monkeys with a million typewriters.

And what's more, they can get lots of the pictures of the thing they love most – themselves.

To learn even more about Gerry visit his website, www.penandcompass.com.