I highlight select photos for this portfolio that most reflect my vision of Wisconsin, the people, land, and culture. I do very little “doctoring” of the photos. I try to present life in Wisconsin as it is.
Ed Marek
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The Western Uplands from Vino Over the Valley
Percherons in Coon Valley
Lazy day on Elkhart Lake
That old-time gas station
Mom, Pop, their Harley
Cranberry Harvest
Stockholm Art Fair
Old Forest View Schoolhouse
Classic barn below the Bennett ridge
Old Dell's Mill Flour & Feed Mill
Norm Dombrowski's Happy Notes Polka Band
The Colors in the Wind at Medford Rodeo
Tall stories at Edgar Steam & Engine Show
Brenda's Blumenladen New Glarus
round barn, hero of our agricultural past
Fire up that maple syrup!
Port Washington, a coastal village
Old-fashioned barn-raising
Farming's Patterns
Old barn - Oconomowoc
Basilica at Holy Hill
The bikes in Grafton
There is so much to see in Wisconsin. For me, it all started with learning about the five geographic provinces. While driving around the state, I felt like I was going from one state to another. I was driving only through Wisconsin.
Then I started to stop and investigate. I took photographs, often not knowing the importance of what I saw. I would return home, research, and be surprised by what I learned.
The result of my photographic work is what I say on my home page: I wander and roam, then snap it! This is Wisconsin thru my eyes!”
In no way would I compare me to Tom Attach, an American landscape painter and photographer from Merrill, a graduate of The Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, and for quite some time a resident of Saukville. I do, however, fit in with things he has said, such as …
“I would like people to understand they’re in the presence of an attitude, or an experience, or a story of a sort that has some kind of content. But they have to figure it out.”
I’m not sure if I picked this up from him or someone else, but I have stopped many times while traveling in the state, getting out of the car, all to “listen to the quiet” and view the magnificence.
I photograph what I like right at the time I snap the camera. When I get home, I often get angry because I did not capture what I thought I had seen. But sometimes, I do capture it. That makes me feel very good inside.
As a general rule, I am interested in what is good about the state. I try to reflect that good the way I saw it. I tinker just a tad here and there with the photo. For example, I might crop it, rotate it a bit, and fool around with the brightness and contrast, but not much more. I am not one to put my photos through the grind of Photoshop.
I do not spend a lot of time on photos that I like. For me, they are either right or wrong. If wrong, they go into the archive. If right, I put them in this, my website, Wisconsin, through my eyes.
I get the most joy from presenting photos that cause people to relate to some point in their life experiences.
I’m no artist, not even a philosopher. I’m just me.
