T H E G R E A T L A K E S F I L M C O L L E C T I O N

Photographer Ed Wargin

Film Photographer Ed Wargin ( 1963 - ) is best known for his essential Americana landscapes of the North American Great Lakes.

Wargin was born and raised near a port-city along the shores of Lake Superior during the era when 'Rust Belt' was used to describe midwestern places in decline due to deindustrialization. Though Rust Belt referred to economic plights in broad span, the term did not resonate with his visual experience of the Great Lakes natural landscape.

Wanting to change that conversation, Wargin began his seminal work in 1987, an effort initially known as The Fresh Coast Project. The thirty-year work to make single plate film photographs of the Great Lakes Coastal basin contributed greatly to the awareness of Great Lakes Americana and its landscape during this time through published works in periodicals, several award-winning coffee-table books, and a multitude of advertising campaigns.

Wargin's work presents a distinct unification of relationships between heritage and landscape; without one, the other would not exist. His approach is defined by an allowance to let the landscape speak for itself, with no interference or dominance from his presence within it.

Over the years, the demands to achieve his thirty-year goal across a region of broad physical expanse was all-consuming, leaving Wargin little time to intentionally pursue the display or sale of his prints. Although he has at times exhibited the work, possessing a print from this collection is exceedingly rare.

As a commercial and editorial photographer, Ed Wargin also achieved success working with such clients as The Orvis Company, Woolrich, L.L. Bean, GMC Trucks, Universal Picture Studios, Anheuser-Busch, Pure Michigan, Caterpillar Tractors, National Geographic Traveler, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Newsweek, The Boston Globe and more.

** Books published during Ed Wargin’s thirty-year effort include Voelker’s Pond, A Robert Traver Legacy, an essay of Great Lakes Americana based upon the life of John Voelker aka Robert Traver; plus Legends of Light, A Michigan Lighthouse Portfolio, The Great Lakes Cottage Book, a presentation of life and ephemera of coastal heritage, Michigan; Spirit of the Land, Lake Michigan, A Photographic Portfolio, Fresh Coast, A Great Lakes Tribute, and more. He is married to author Kathy-jo Wargin.

His books and work on the Great Lakes continue to be a unique artistic record of Great Lakes culture and natural history.

An Endnote from Ed Wargin…

“I am from the Great Lakes region and have a generational connection to this place and its history. The film photographs I have created are my deeply rooted homage; they are my way of paying respect to this coastal landscape through the relationships of water, man, nature, tradition, and change. 

During the years, I worked with film because it required a thoughtful, disciplined, and artful approach to making a photograph. It allowed me to reveal the interconnection between human influence, the lakes, and the essential landscape of the Great Lakes Coastal Districts.

It is my hope this art collection manifests our human bond with this globally important freshwater resource into a visual language that will speak for generations.”

- Ed Wargin