58 | FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 

ARTS&LIFE
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT

TOP: Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather, 1922 by Imogen 
Cunningham. ABOVE: Suzie, Bahama Beach Club, Portland, 
Maine, 1996 by Melonie Bennett.

MELONIE BENNETT 

continued from page 57

what is represented by the Holocaust 
pictures has special depth for her. The 
many Jewish photographers featured 
in the collection include Diane Arbus, 
Richard Avedon and Elliott Erwitt.
The pictures are black and white.
“I grew up with black and white 
photography,
” 
explained Lauder, 
whose family has 
traveled often to 
Israel and the Eastern 
European countries 
and recorded what 
they saw. “My father 
[Irving Bennett Ellis] 
was a doctor, but he 
was a black and white 
photographer. 
“I worked in his 
darkroom, and I also 
met his friends who 
were photographers. 
It was my era and is 
very meaningful to 
me. I knew about fine arts photog-
raphy before it became something of 
much greater value. 
“I would see images in the 1970s, 
and they were affordable and available. 
That’s how I started collecting and, of 
course, a collection is never ending. 
I’m always looking for images.
”
Presence was organized and pre-
miered by the Portland Museum of 
Art in Maine, which had been chosen 
to maintain the Lauder collection 
before an exhibit was established. 
“I have lived in Portland, Maine, for 
many years, 40 or more, and I have 
been active with the Portland Museum 
of Art,
” said Lauder, who had been a 
widow just as her husband had been a 
widower in the time of their meeting. 
“When I started amassing some 
beautiful black and white images, I 
had no more room at home to hang or 
to store them, and so they all went into 
long-term loan at the museum.
” 
Lauder spent years going back and 
forth to Eastern Europe and photo-
graphing camps, trains, train tracks, 
ghettos, former ghettos, areas that 
were once thriving with Jews and now 
very much devoid of Jews. 

“From iconic portraits to historic 
events, vibrant cityscapes to contem-
plative landscapes, the subjects and 
artists in Presence tell a compassionate 
story of humanity,
” Friis-Hansen said. 
“The exhibition covers a wide ter-
ritory of photography that expands 
our expectation of the 
medium. While many 
of these artists and sub-
jects have been shown 
at GRAM, many will be 
fresh and inspiring.”
Photos taken by 
Lauder have been exhib-
ited worldwide and are 
represented in more than 
300 public and private 
collections includ-
ing the J. Paul Getty 
Museum in Los Angeles, 
Metropolitan Museum 
of Art in New York and 
United States Holocaust 
Memorial Museum in 
Washington, D.C.
“I have a wide range of subjects,
” 
said Lauder, whose family time has 
been shared as a mom of four, grand-
mother of 16 and a recent great-grand-
mother. “I open myself up to where I 
am. I’m not on any particular mission 
or project. 
“I always have a camera with me. If 
I see certain things late day or shadows 
going across something and I’m taken 
by it, out comes the camera.
“I’ve studied under many different 
photographers, different photo work-
shops and one on one with Arnold 
Newman. In my childhood, my dad 
was friendly with Edward Weston and 
Ansel Adams. I was in a workshop 
with Edward Weston, and my brothers 
were on field trips with Ansel Adams.
”
Lauder, also active with health and 
community organizations, looks for-
ward to moving this exhibit around 
the country. As she currently takes 
more pictures, Lauder is bringing 
color into her work.
“I’m having fun with digital color 
and exploring,” she said. “I have a 
lot of new work that I’m having fun 
with.” 

Details 
Presence: The 
Photography 
Collection of Judy 
Glickman Lauder will 
be shown through April 
29 at the Grand Rapids 
Art Museum, 101 North 
Monroe Center St. 
NW. Hours are noon-6 
p.m. Tuesdays, noon-9 
p.m. Thursdays and 
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays-
Saturdays. $6-$10. 
info@artmuseumgr.org. 
(616) 831-1000.

Louise Weinstein 
Ellis, 1938, by 
Irving Bennett Ellis

IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM TRUST
JUDY GLICKMAN LAUDER COLLECTION

