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