Thomas Lemke: Photography at Fiddleheads Cafe

THOMAS LEMKE

Photography at Fiddleheads Cafe - March 1 to May 31, 2018

My beginnings were in Central Wisconsin. I grew up outside the small town of

Gresham roaming a backyard that was a virtually limitless expanse of farm fields,

woodlots, lakes and rivers. Before the term was used for raising heathy chickens,

I was free-ranging.

At age 12 my uncle gave me a camera and I started to capture my world on film.

My father helped me build a darkroom from scratch and the sight of my first print

emerging in the developer hooked me. Photography became my passion.

I moved to Milwaukee to attend Layton School of Art and then Milwaukee Area

Technical college. I was hired as a company photographer for Northwestern Mutual.

With my wife Joanne, Mequon has been my home for the past 34 years.

I have studied color and composition with Ernst Haas, the photographic range of light

with John Sexton and the beauty of grays and tonality with George Tice. I’ve learned from these masters but also greatly

benefited from the skill and guidance of many photographer friends.

I made my living photographing people for the most part. Portraits, public relations and advertising were my mainstay. But

no matter my urban commitments I always found time to photograph in my favorite places, those woods and rivers in

wilder country.