Sturgeon Bay, Wis. (March 8, 2022) – The community is invited to the Door County Community Foundation to view “People of Impact.” The exhibit features photographs highlighting impactful community members taken by Dennis Connolly, Tina M. Gohr, Tom Groenfeldt, Thomas Jordan, Brett Kosmider, Arlene Stanger, and Steven Stanger. The Community Foundation is located at 222 N 3rd Avenue in Downtown Sturgeon Bay. The gallery is open to the public during the Community Foundation’s regular hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Those honored in the photographs include Charlene Berg, Gary Chaudoir, Katie Dahl, Michael Doerr, George Draeb, David Eliot, Rich Higdon, Stella Huff, Jack Luderus, Charlotte Lukes, Tom Lutsey, Mike Madden, Liz Welter & John Maggitti, Peter Nelson, Charles L. Peterson, Dewey Risenhoover, Carl Scholz, Seth Taylor, Jeremy Popelka & Stephanie Trenchard, Margaret Lockwood & Allin Walker, and Christine Webb-Miller.
Born in Chicago and raised in Kenosha, Dennis Connolly joined the US Air Force, serving in England, where his childhood explorations in photography were encouraged by winning a Kodak European contest. After establishing his career in dental care, he discovered the importance of photography while traveling with health care teams to Central America, and subsequently with photography groups to many remote areas. The beauty and complex simplicity of village people there drew him to make portraits and to share those intense images with others. Although Dennis continues to grow as a photographer, he still prefers portraits and architectural or abstract subject matter.
Tina Gohr has decades of experience as a photojournalist, the last 12 years as a chief photographer at the Door County Advocate and the Kewaunee County Star-News before starting her own freelance business in 2019. Contributing to Our Wisconsin magazine for seven years she has written and photographed more than 50 articles on topics from farms to fishing. Photojournalists have to be versatile and personable— they walk into new situations several times a day and need emotional intelligence to work smoothly with people and create the images that tell the story. Tina carries the same skills today into corporate and resort work, weddings, senior pictures, family events, and food photography.
Tom Groenfeldt is a reporter—financial technology, primarily for forbes.com—and a photographer who likes street shooting in large cities. He has had one-man shows at Base Camp, Door Peninsula Winery, Glas in Sheboygan, and TAP and Hope Church in Sturgeon Bay. He participated in the previous People of Impact show at Scandia Village in Sister Bay. Tom writes about artists for the Door County Pulse and often takes photographs to go with his articles. His photographs have also appeared in the New York Times, Securities Industry News, Banking Technology and Risk magazines in the UK, and on artinfo.com.
Thomas Jordan is the retired Chairman/Chief Creative Officer of Hoffman York Advertising in Milwaukee. In 2015, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Advertising Hall of Fame. Tom is the author of four best-selling marketing books and seven coffee-table books, including four on Door County.
When Bret Kosmider isn’t wandering off into the wilds, he usually has a camera in front of his face taking photographs or, as a cofounder and the creative director of Peninsula Filmworks, is producing videos about the people and places of Door County. See his aerial photographs of ice and Door County in the winter issue of Door County Living.
Having access to a darkroom many years ago sparked Arlene Stanger’s interest in photography. Although she is largely self-taught, she has taken independent photography classes at a community college as well as classes at the Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek. She has also attended a photographic workshop in Ireland. Arlene is an award-winning photographer and has exhibited in numerous local, national and international juried and invitational exhibits.
Since retiring 13 years ago after 28 years as a township accessor in Lake County, IL, Steven Stanger has been a resident of Baileys Harbor. Other than a few adult continuing education courses in photography, Steve is essentially a self-taught photographer. His interest in the medium began when he was stationed in the U.S. Army Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California at a time when master photographers Brett Weston and Ansel Adams were living and working in the area. Steve has spent time in the darkroom processing prints for his own consumption but now has fully embraced the digitization of photography.
Each season, different Door County artists will be invited to exhibit their work at the Door County Community Foundation’s Lobby Gallery. The gallery is normally open to the public during the Community Foundation’s regular hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The Door County Community Foundation, Inc. is a collection of separate charitable funds set up by individuals, families, non-profit organizations, private foundations and businesses that are managed, invested and disbursed for the current and future good of Door County. The Community Foundation was launched in 1999, currently administers more than $45 million in assets, and distributes more than $10 million to charities in Door County every year.
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