Michael Knapstein

These photographs are from an ongoing series entitled "A Day's Work" which captures the essence of the hardworking people of the American Midwest. All images were created in Wisconsin during the summers of 2021 and 2022. This body of work explores themes of memory, history, heritage, rural identity and sense of place.

I think of the Midwest as being classic and timeless in nature. Therefore, I approached this project from a time-honored monochromatic “straight photography” perspective in the spirit of Group f/64 and gave the work a modernist character with a strong formalist dimension. My approach was informed by the work of mid-century modernist photographers such as Adams, Weston, White, Strand and Evans.

My work was also strongly influenced by the American Regionalism movement and the work of artists who portrayed the American heartland, including Wood, Benton, Curry, Wyeth and Hopper.

“A Day’s Work” images have been honored with multiple national and international awards including Grand Prize at the 19^th International Pollux Awards (Kent, England). Recent exhibitions include FotoNostrum (Barcelona, Spain), The Blank Wall Gallery (Athens, Greece), The Racine Art Museum (Racine, Wisconsin) and the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts (Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin) to name just a few.

WI