Guests attend the opening reception for the annual Teresa Lousias Memorial Photography Exhibition Jan. 15 at Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – The work of 40 photographers drew an appreciative crowd Jan. 15 to the opening reception of the sixth annual Teresa Lousias Memorial Photo Exhibit at the Padzieski Gallery.
“The good thing about this show is it’s so varied, and there is so much variety in it,” said Chris Bennett, Padzieski Gallery coordinator. “This year we chose a photo editor from the Detroit Free Press, so I kind of expected a little more journalism-heavy entries, but we still had a lot of fine art work that was submitted; it didn’t scare anybody off.”
Bennett said juror Melanie Maxwell appreciates art work as well.
“We just hope to show a wide variety of what people are doing in photography, from portrait, street to abstract art,” he said. “Through the show we show metro Detroit what is happening in the area.”
Debbie Bush, sister of the late Teresa Lousias, for whom the memorial photography exhibit is named, stands by her sister’s work Jan. 15 at Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
Audra Vas of Columbia, S.C., daughter of the late Teresa Lousias, said her mother was both a photographer and very involved in the Dearborn Community Arts League as well.
“She fully believed in the arts in our community, but in terms of photography, it was a hobby that turned into a passion which then turned into a career,” she said. “She was an amateur but she traveled all over the world doing photography.”
Vas said she had exhibits from as far away as New Zealand and as close as her hometown of Dearborn.
“She took photographs mostly of landscapes, nature, people, that kind of thing,” she said. “I just feel that she would be really excited to be here, and my brother (Michael Lousias) and I both support this.”
Vas said the exhibit is a great way to extend her mother’s memory.
Debbie Bush, Teresa Lousias’ sister, said her sister loved taking pictures of so many things.
“I did help her on several occasions with a few projects, along with another friend of hers,” she said. “You think you’re going to capture the perfect thing, and it could take hours, days to get what you want.”
Bush said she was proud that her niece and nephew support the annual memorial photo exhibit in her sister’s name.
“My sister is smiling up there,” she said. “It was a passion, and our dad was a photographer, an aerial photographer, and she got my dad’s camera when my dad passed.”
Photographer Evan Deutsch stands by his metal print “Ren Cen on a Foggy Day” during the Jan. 15 opening reception for the annual Teresa Lousias Memorial Photography Exhibition at Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
Bush said her sister’s husband had multiple sclerosis, and she was widowed in her early 40s, after which she had time to turn to photography.
She said when her sister traveled to other countries, she loved to take random street shots of people, especially of children and the elderly.
Bush said Lousias, as a Michigander, also loved going “up north,” and took her camera with her.
Photographer Erin McConnell said her archival pigment print “Weight in Gold” that received the Juror’s Choice Award is a photo of her friend from Ghana whom she wanted to work with because she felt he was an amazing model.
She said the jacket and pins are thrift store finds and she ordered the crown online.
“I gave him the character I wanted him to portray, I gave him the outfit and he just turned it out,” she said.
McConnell also displayed a photo of her friend who is a professional ballerina.
“I had this idea about sugar plums dancing in your head,” she said. “It was shot around Christmas time and she thought the concept was really cool.”
McConnell said it was originally shot in color, then she converted it to black and white.
The exhibit, which runs through Feb. 14 at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave., is open from noon to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and by special appointment.
For more information, call 313-943-5478 or go to padzieskigallery.org.
Photographer Erin McConnell stands by “Weight in Gold,” her archival pigment print that received the Juror’s Choice Award for the annual Teresa Lousias Memorial Photography Exhibition, during the Jan. 15 opening reception at Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
Audra Vas (left), daughter of the late Teresa Lousias, and Debbie Bush, Lousias’ sister, stand with a plaque describing her Jan. 15 at Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.
Guests attend the opening reception for the annual Teresa Lousias Memorial Photography Exhibition Jan. 15 at Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.