We are excited to welcome photograpers Joe Fitzgerald and AJ Morey to the WDG for the months of August and September!
More about their exhibit “Defy the Machine”: “Machine” is a complex and versatile term, referring to a calculated assemblage of parts that together transmit force, motion and energy (transportation, factories, technology). Machine is a metaphor describing the way persons or systems work (methodical, relentless, efficient, tireless). Machines are part of our identity as a civilization, but it is an identity we struggle with and sometimes resist. These photographs capture how we defy, embrace or even create the machine.
Join us on Friday September 7th from 5-8pm for the First Fridays Artist Reception.
More about AJ Morey: I’m an English professor and administrator at JMU, and before that I was a Religious Studies professor. My teaching and professional writing over a 30 year career focused on religion and literature. That changed about ten years ago. After chemotherapy, I didn’t want to read anymore; I wanted to look at pictures. I collected antique photographs of people and their dogs, and to justify the expense of the collection, I got creative and I wrote a book about dogs based on my collection: Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves: American Vintage Photographs (Penn State Press 2014). Then I wanted to make pictures myself, so I founded Free Spirit Photography LLC. I specialize in photographs of horses and horse-human relationships, and anything else that catches my eye. I work closely with several area equine therapy groups, always looking for the visual that tells the story about inter-species communication.
More about Joe Fitzgerald: In 1984, I grabbed a borrowed camera in the middle of the night and ran to the site of a mom-and-pop convenience store burning three streets away. The pictures landed me a job as a newspaper reporter. Since then, I’ve also been a newspaper editor, system manager, network administrator, technical writer, technology coordinator, city council member, mayor, and party hack. And I was also a photographer. The whole time.
