Collaborating as photographers since the mid-1980s, John Shimon and Julie Lindemann joined the Lawrence faculty in 2000 as part-time instructors, before receiving a full-time, joint assistant professor of art appointment in the fall of 2005.
Passionate about the history of photography, their highly stylized work draws on the medium’s changes since its invention in 1839, incorporating processes and techniques that span everything from the Daguerreotype to today’s digital technology. They actively mine their native northeast Wisconsin for much of their subject matter, photographing people and places based on “chance and aesthetics” to capture the quiet melancholy of rural and small-town life.
Forty portraits and a multi-media presentation were featured in the 2006 solo exhibition “It Takes One to Know One” at the New York gallery of Sarah Bowen ’01; they also produced the catalog Observations Are Not Knowledge. Their photographs were part of the traveling exhibit “Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self,” curated by the International Center of Photography. A decade-long project resulted in the 2004 boutique art book Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree, which generated national media attention. They shot the cover photograph for the recently released book Truck: A Love Story by Wisconsin author Michael Perry and are completing an exhibition of panoramic dairy farm landscapes and portraits titled “Wisconsin’s People on the Land” for an April show at the Wisconsin Academy James Watrous Gallery in Madison, a project that was supported by a Lawrence University faculty research grant.
The Photo: Surrounding Professors Lindemann and Shimon in the photo above are students from the Photography class.
View other faculty profiles from the president's annual report