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The Photographer
Born in Germany in 1967, Lars Michael has been practicing photography since he received his first SLR camera at the age of 15 years. While in high school, he studied Ansel Adams’ classic books about the “zone system” and put this newly acquired knowledge to use in the wet darkroom.
In college he learned about techniques such as lith processing, photogenic processing, and color processing. Lars spent his last year of college living in Cape Town, South Africa, after being accepted in an exchange program. Being transplanted into a different continent reinforced his love for scenery photography.
In 1995, Lars moved to Minneapolis and began traveling to the places he had seen in photographs of great American landscape photographers, such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. Soon he recognized the benefits of a digital work flow, and began using Adobe
Photoshop to add finishing touches to scanned color and black-and-white negatives and transparencies, and ultimately switched to an all-digital work flow in the early 2000s.
He opened his own photographic business in 2003 after graduating at the New York Institute of Photography with a degree in Professional Photography. He also completed a judging class in 2005, and now serves as judge for photography salons in the greater Minneapolis area.
In the early 2000s, Lars specialized on portraiture, but with the advent of digital infrared photography he rediscovered black&white landscape photography.
His work has been on display at the Minnesota State Fair and shown at several galleries in the Minneapolis area; including the Icebox Gallery, the Edina Art Center, the Hopkins Center for the Arts, and the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, WI.
Lars has won numerous awards for his photographic work, including several award medals from the yearly Minneapolis Print Circuits and one PSA Gold Medal.
Lars Michael is a ProFotoArts member - an exclusive group of photographers in the Twin Cities area established to help promote and sell each other's photography work.
Awards
2010
Photographer of the Year
"Kat - Silver Cry" - Judges Choice Award (Small Monochrome Print)
- Minneapolis St. Paul International Print Circuit
"Kat - Silver Skin" - Judges Choice Award (Large Monochrome Print)
- Minneapolis St. Paul International Print Circuit
"Taipei - Sun Rays" - Best of Show Award (Large Monochrome Print)
2005
"Kat - Serenity" - Judges Choice Award (Large Color Print)
- Minneapolis St. Paul International Print Circuit
CV
2005
Certified Photography Judge
2003
Degree in Professional Photography