Tom Kutchera: Faces of a Fish Empire
@ Rangefinder Gallery
300 W Superior St, Suite 202 Chicago, IL 60654
Opening Friday, March 1st, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Saturday, April 27th
Opening Reception: FACES OF A FISH EMPIRE
Tom Kutchera (1932-2016) bought his Leica M3 film camera while driving an ambulance in the U.S. Army in Germany during the mid-1950’s. He taught himself photography during his two years abroad and returned to his hometown of Milwaukee to begin working in the family business, Empire Fish Company, a wholesale seafood distributor and retail store in Milwaukee, WI. He incorporated his love of photography into his work by taking portraits of its employees from the 1960’s until he retired in 1995, when Neesvig’s Food Service purchased the business.
When photographer Naomi Shersty attended the funeral of Tom Kutchera, she discovered this collection of portraits by Tom that captured Empire Fish Company’s workers who supplied seafood to the region’s many fish fries and restaurants. He never intended to exhibit the collection in a gallery. Naomi never knew Tom but that discovery led her to turn these portraits of a “work family” into a photo exhibit.
Kutchera’s portraits can be compared to those by August Sander, the German portrait and documentary photographer who captured the tradesmen, artists and farmers of Germany in the first half of the 20th Century. Preserved in family albums, this unique collection of intimate portraits honor the individuals who supplied numerous Friday Night Fish Fries – a Midwestern staple. Through a humanitarian lens, Kutchera’s portraits celebrate those who don’t often get commemorated: the production workers behind the scenes.
Tom’s sons, Andrew and Joe, have turned the exhibit, photos, and a manuscript that Tom left behind into a book – Faces of a Fish Empire – that tell the story behind their father’s portraits as well as the larger history and decline of Lake Michigan’s many family-owned fish companies and fishermen.
http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/faces-fish-empire
Official Website
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Tags: Chicago, Faces of a Fish Empire, Near North Side, Rangefinder Gallery, Tom Kutchera
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