Photographer, archivist, visual thinker, bricoleur: Paul Vanderbilt devoted his life to understanding the way images convey meaning. Learn more about this brilliant, complex man with our three panelists: Jack Holzhueter, who worked closely with Vanderbilt at Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS); Andy Kraushaar, who holds Vanderbilt's former position in the WHS Archives Division; and Michael Lesy, whose book Wisconsin Death Trip was created with images from the WHS Archives. Explore several aspects of Vanderbilt's legacy, from his landscape photography and the finely nuanced "search functions" he developed for the WHS Iconographic Collections to his fascinating thematic panels and pairings, which combine historic images with his own photographs and poetic texts.
Originally held at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium on Saturday, October 18, 2014, this event was presented in conjunction with the James Watrous Gallery exhibition The Archive as a River: Paul Vanderbilt and Photography. The exhibit and its related programs have been developed in collaboration with the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Archives Division, and coincided with the Midwest Society of Photographic Education conference Yesterday Today: Photography and the Archive, held in Madison from October 16-18, 2014. Video is provided courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
