Conversations about Photography 2006

Gil Reid received a standing ovation for his remarks about Ted Rose at the 2006 conference. Reid, 88, died Monday, January 2, 2007. Photo by Henry A. Koshollek, M.A.

Here is the outline of the 2006 conference, “Conversations about Photography,” Saturday, March 25, 2006, at David Straz Hall, Marquette University, Milwaukee. Following the program, a reception was held only steps away from the exhibition Railroads and the American Industrial Landscape: Ted Rose Paintings and Photographs at the Haggery Museum of Art on the campus. The reception was sponsored by Trains magazine.

The program included:

• Jeff Brouws, photographer and writer, “On Railroad Photography,” He wrote the text for A Passion for Trains, the Railroad Photography of Richard Steinheimer, and was co-author of Starlight on the Rails. Steinheimer and Brouws won the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s 2005 award for an outstanding book of lasting value for A Passion for Trains. Brouws selected 153 photographs, printed in duotone (80 had never before been seen in print) and presented them in a fine art context, one on a page, and wrote a 15,000 word introductory essay, placing Steinheimer’s work in context with other photographers.
• Chris Burger, retired railroad executive, Burger retired in 1998 from Central Properties, Inc. of Kokomo, Indiana, a short line railroad holding company where he was CEO. His railroad career also included the positions of COO of the Central Vermont Railway and assistant vice president and Wisconsin Division Manager in Milwaukee from 1977 through 1985 for the Chicago & North Western.
• John Fasulo, Retired Cameraman, CNN-New York, Fasulo talks about “The End of Steam in West Germany, 1974.”
• Kevin P. Keefe, Kalmbach Publishing Company, Keefe, vice president-editorial, publisher, will show and discuss what he describes as “pivotal” moments in the history of Trains magazine’s use of railroad photography.
• Greg McDonnell, winner of the 2005 R&LHS photography award for outstanding contributions to photographic interpretation, McDonnell “discovers drama not only in the landscape, but in the most unexpected places: notably, railroading’s mechanical microcosms,” the awards committee said. His many books include Wheat Kings (Boston Mills Press, 1998) and more than 40 articles in Trains, Railfan & Railroad, and CTC Board. He edits the Boston Mills Press Masters in Railroad Photography series.
• Sayre Kos, Mundelein, Illinois, again is organizing a presentation by developing photographers, Kos, a student at Lake Forest College who assists at the college’s special collections department, worked as a conductor for the Wisconsin & Southern.
• Gil Reid, A Milwaukee artist who worked with Rose at Kalmbach Publishing Company, personal remembrances of Ted.

“Conversations about Photography” is co-sponsored by the Haggerty Museum and the Lake Forest College library’s Archives and Special Collections. The program includes a report on the Center’s three-year project, “Representations of Railroad Work, Past and Present,” and a review of the cataloging of the Rose photographs by David Mattoon, a research associate at the Lake Forest. Curtis L. Carter, director of the Haggery Museum and curator of the Rose exhibition, will welcome participants.