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.
Surrounding
Professors Lindemann and Shimon in the photo above are students from the Photography class.