Wisconsin photography exhibition highlights 10 Midwest photographers you need to know. 

There's a rapidly-expiring misconception that in order to "make it" in the art and photography world, one has to live in New York City, London, Los Angeles or another dense metropolitan area. The most world-renowned museums, institutions and bluest of the blue-chip commercial galleries reside there alongside those who can afford to buy art and support artists' careers. The trope of the "art-world-hustle" is most commonly attributed to making it in New York City. In the United States specifically, with the exception of Chicago, there's often a "fly-over" attitude towards the Midwest. 

For Wisconsin-born and raised producer, curator, founder of FlakPhoto and champion of all things photographic, Andy Adams, these assumptions – while first limiting – were not a problem, but an opportunity to fill a lack and make something new. Andy too, grew up thinking he'd need to make a pilgrimage to one of the coasts to find success but stayed put, using his various digitally-driven projects to build an influential community of photographers from around the world. This September, Adams narrows his focus to Midwest photographers with the exhibition at Madison Wisconsin's James Watrous Gallery aptly titled "New Midwest Photography." The show is a survey of 10 photographers living and working in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Ohio. It's a broad range of approaches and subject matter, but what brings them all together is the photographers' blending of, in Adam's words "personal observation and regional knowledge to produce photography that reflects the contemporary American Midwest."

The exhibition opens September 7th and is on view through October 28. 

I emailed Andy to learn more about what's fueling this exhibition and his larger curatorial practice.

Jon Feinstein in conversation with Andy Adams