|  Bryce
Denison - holds a BFA from the College for
Creative Studies; The College of Art and Design, and
a MA from Wayne State University in photography. He
travels and lectures around the country at colleges
and at various photographic events, and presents workshops
in both the U.S. and Canada. Bryce lectures on behalf
of Ilford Corporation and is a representative for Westcott
Corporation at national meetings and conventions. He
currently works as a forensic photographer for the City
of Detroit Fire Department. His work has been exhibited
nationally and his work is represented in the permanent
collection of several museums and galleries, as well
as private collections across the country.
 Jim
Hodel - builds upon 15 years experience in
computer technology, digital imaging and audio/video
production to combine the best of traditional and digital
photography. Enjoying architectural, cityscape and nature
photography; he interprets subjects using Adobe Photoshop,
Corel Painter and Kai's Power Tools to produce images
for print and electronic presentation. Experienced in
scanning, printing and digital processing; he combines
practical, hands-on experience with theoretical knowledge
gained through degrees in engineering and business.
Jim teaches MPW's digital photography, video and Adobe
Photoshop courses. Jim holds a B.S. degree in engineering.
 Joseph
Wisniewski
An award winning engineer by day, Joseph
S. Wisniewski has been active for over 20 years as a
respected technical, architectural, and industrial photographer.
Joseph holds a B.S. degree in Engineering and a Masters
Degree in Engineering from Lawrence Technological University.
He also holds a B.F.A. in Photography from Oakland University.
Bill Gosa
Gosa, a native of Detroit, is an artist, activist, historian, documentanian, writer and graphic designer.
His fine art photography has been featured in numerous publications, exhibited internationally and in the collections of various institutions. Gosa’s documentary “ Barbershop” was selected by PBS to be broadcast on various PBS stations across the USA and was featured at the African Diaspora Film Festival held in Kingston, Jamaica.
Academically, Gosa undergrad degrees include: BSEE in Electrical Engineering and BFA in Fine Arts.He continued his pursuit in education to receive his MBA. Gosa has that unique capability of using both sides of his brain, scientific and aesthetic. “I am essentially emotional in my expression and analytical in my approach. My artistic effort acknowledges our specific identities and inspires social ascension without dilution of ethnic, spiritual and cultural values. Life’s growing complexity, is my motivation towards achieving an simple and fundamental artistic perspective”.
Gosa has been elected the president of several artistic organizations and his leadership has helped to provide a wider appreciation and awareness of African American culture. He was invited to lecture on America’s classical music - Jazz, as a component of his exhibition “ Boplicity” at the Museum of African American History. Gosa has taught the principals of photographic composition and lighting at several community colleges. Served on the boards of the Minnesota American Museum, African American Artist Collective, the Miss Black Minnesota Pageant and the African American Art Society.
“I feel African American culture is at the center of American culture, not peripheral. African American’s character in the United States is not found in our achievements, frustrations or pain – but in our struggle”.
Jim Zuckerman
Jim Zuckerman left his medical studies in 1970 to turn his love of photography into a career. He has lectured and taught creative photography at many universities and private schools, including UCLA, Kent State University, the Hallmark Institute of Photography, and the Palm Beach Photographic Center. He also has led both domestic and international photo tours for 31 years to Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the American Southwest. He has been to 73 countries, searching for the most compelling subjects in the world to photograph.
Zuckerman was a contributing editor to Photographic Magazine for 32 years. He now writes for Shutterbug Magazine. His images, articles and photo features have been published in hundreds of books and magazines including several Time-Life Books, publications of the National Geographic Society, Outdoor Photographer, Omni Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Science Fiction Age, Australia's Photo World, and Greece's Opticon. He is the author of twelve books on photography and is currently writing his 13th.
His work has been used for packaging, advertising, and editorial layouts in forty five countries around the world. Jim's images have also appeared in calendars, posters, greeting cards, and corporate publications
Vincent Versace
http://www.versacephotography.com/v2/
Vincent Versace is a recipient of the Computerworld Smithsonian Award in Media Arts & Entertainment and the Shellenberg fine art award and is a two-time nominee to the Photoshop Hall of Fame. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History.
Vincent is the photographer of Immediate Assistants Medical Rescue Go team and one of the members of the photographic team of Eco-Challenge. He has been commissioned by the San Francisco Presidio National Park to produce a book and create a permanent collection of art for the park. He is an American Photo Magazine Mentor Trek instructor and has led Mentor treks to San Francisco, Costa Rica, Santa Fe, Egypt and Australia. Vincent is member of the board of directors of Los Angeles chapter of the American Photographers Association. He is also a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals "Instructor Dream Team" and teaches regularly at Photoshopworld as well as being a regular instructor at the Santa Fe Photographic and Palm Beach Photographic Workshops. Vincent will be starting his third year as the host of the Epson Print Academy and his second year teaching the Digital Landscape Workshop Series with Moose Petersen. He is currently a member of Microsoft's Digital Imaging Applications Group and founding member of both the Epson Stylus Pros and Lexar Elite Photographers. He is the former artist in residence for Altamira Group and former consultant to the president of Kodak's Digital & Applied Imaging Group.
In addition to being one of the featured artists of Epson, Lexar and Nikon Electronic Imaging, he is also one of the photographers used by Epson, Lexar, Adobe, Nik Multimedia, X-Rite, Monaco, Microsoft, Alienware Computers, Apple Computers, Roland, Dynalite Strobe systems, Photoflex, Luminos, Kodak, Lowe Pro, and Nikon to beta test their software, color management systems, computers, digital cameras, digital backs, flash media, lighting systems, hi-resolution printers, ink and Inkjet media, and scanners.
Articles about his work and his use of the bio mechanics of emotion in photography in conjunction with a digital workflow have appeared in the American Photo, Popular Photography, Shutterbug, Petersen's Photographic, PC Camera, What Digital Camera, Studio Design and Photography, Professional Photographer, Digital Imaging, Digital Camera and I/O Magazines.
Vincent was a featured guest speaker at the 1998 national convention of Professional Photographers of America, and was asked to be part of the Vision Gallery at the 1999 fall Seybold Show held in San Francisco.
Vincent is an alumnus of the University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television Masters of Fine Arts program, the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), Wayne State University, The University of Michigan and Boston University School of Fine Art. He is the former student of the critically acclaimed photographer C. J. Elfont and has studied with Stephen Book (Spolin technique/Alba emoting), Sydney Walker (A.C.T.) and was the teaching assistant to Tad Z. Danielewski.
His work is recommended by United Talent Agency, the William Morris Agency, International Creative Management, Creative Artists Agency, Gold/Miller, Mosaic Media, Anonymous Content and Blue train Entertainment.
Vincent is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and on the weekends is a part-time super-hero and short-order cook.
Taro
Yamasacki
http://taroyamasaki.com/
Taro Yamasacki started his career in
photojournalism as a staff photographer for the Detroit
Free Press in 1977. During his six years there
he won a number of journalism and photojournalism awards
including state and national American Bar Association
awards, and the 1981 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for
Feature Photography.
In
1983 Yamasacki started freelancing working on assignment
for a number of magazines including Time, Life, People,
Fortune, Forbes, and Sports Illustrated. In 1985 he
became a Contributing Photographer at People, traveling
throughout the United States and the world, photographing
in-depth, between the-headline, human interest stories.
In 1999 and 2000, Yamasacki served as Distinguished Visiting
Artist in Residence a the University of Michigan School
of Art and Design.
For the last several year he has traveled to Asia, Europe,
and the United States photographing travertine architecture.
A book of these photographs, his second on the subject
was published in November 2003.
 Marilyn Zimmerman
Marilyn Zimmerman is a communitarian photography/installation/performance artist and an Associate Professor of the Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University. Her interrelated social documentary photographic projects involve re-envisioning the urban past, the (post) nuclear family and images of the aging of women and most recently honoring the crones; large-scale portraits of octogenarian women who are vivid personalities. In each, she investigates the inherent limitations of these over-romanticized systems by means of research and autobiographical images and experiences to incorporate a social critique inclusive of gender, race and class. She was cofounder of Urban Margins, an artists collective addressing issues of race, class, gender and is the Director of the Woodward Re-Photographic Project which was exhibited at the Detroit Historical Museum during the Detroit Tri-Centennial year of 2001. Marilyn holds a B.F.A. degree from Purdue University and an M.F.A. degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Her work also serves to bring balance to the imbalance of these hierarchal structures.
Her work is collected in the Detroit Institute of Art, Victorian, Albert Museum, Art Institute of Chicago and she was the co-founder of the collaborative arts organization URBAN MARGINS and has exhibited internationally. Marilyn has recently collaborated with Carol Jacobsen and Shaun Banert on a documentary film addressing 30 years of woman's work that has been censored. It has played at the 2007 Feminist and Lesbian Film Festival in Paris, France.
Stela Zaharieva
Born in Bulgaria, she graduated from the French Language School and later majored in Bulgarian and French Literature and Linguistics at the University of Plovidiv. Stela holds a degree in Photography from Oakland County Community College and has won numerous awards from various exhibitions and shows.
http://www.stelazaharieva.com/
 Kelly
Kossuth
Kelly Kossuth graduated from Boston
College with a B. S. degree, then did her post bachelor
work at the Massachusetts College of Art. She
studied sculpture, fibers, drawing, photography and
architecture. She currently owns a small custom
framing enterprise and has framed all the fine art work
at MPW for the last six years.
 Kirsten
Schmidt
Holds
a degree in Childhood Development and is one of a handful
of women certified in AVID video editing.
Paul McKinney
Paul holds a
A.B. degree from Georgetown University and a J. D. degree
from the University of Michigan. He is an avid nature and wildlife photographer. Paul enjoys sharing practical ideas and solutions for the field and his passion for photography with his students.
Vadim Yelizarov
Vadim graduated from Kaliningrad Marine College in Russia with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Upon arriving in the United States in 1997, he changed his career to Graphic Design and web development and now runs an independent business providing for various clients. His business web site address is: www.smart2smart.com.
C.J. Elfont
CJ Elfont is a co-founder of Midwest Photographic Workshops (MPW) and has been teaching workshops since 1978. Currently, he is an instructor for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Clemson University. His “Isolate Theory” forms the basis of many of his students’ understanding of composition, and is briefly described in Vincent Versace’s book, Welcome to Oz: A Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography with Photoshop. Having begun as a black and white, large format, nature photographer, he has since used a wide spectrum of formats and techniques, concentrating in the past several years on digital photography and Adobe Photoshop. Among his credits are three coffee table books (Sand Dunes of the Great Lakes, Harbor Wanderers, and Roar of Thunder, Whisper of Wind) and one instructional book. His work has been shown in approximately 25 galleries and 2 museums in such cities as Toronto, San Francisco, Carmel, New Orleans, Denver and in many locations throughout the Midwest. Over a span of 25 years, he has been the sole photographer of myriad magazine articles in publications such as Travel & Leisure, Sierra Club, Great Lakes Travel & Living, and numerous others. CJ received both a B.S. and a D.D.S. degree from the University of Maryland. Photography and dentistry were his twin professions until he retired from dentistry in 1996.
Alan Hoskins
Allen has over 20 years experience in computer technology, He currently owns his own documentation and imaging company responsible for documenting large and mainframe computers. Allen has been active in digital imaging and astronomy from the start of the digital imaging revolution. Enjoying all types of earthly and celestial photography Allen has spent countless hours perfecting his celestial workflow. Allen is proficient with a number of specialized software applications specifically used in celestial photography as well as photoshop, noise ninja, capture one pro, stack register. Allen has been published in a number of technical magazines. Allen holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Oakland University.
Lewis Dennison
Mr. Dennison is a photographer living and working in the Detroit
Metropolitan area whose primary artistic thrust is in the area of
Fetishism. He perceives the fetish subculture as a vehicle for the natural extension and progression of normal sexual fantasy. His images portray
the fetishist as an artist whose art form takes shape in a world
of blatant exhibitionism.
Restraints and bindings are overlaid on a palate
of form and grace, often contrasting the opposing values of beauty and anti-beauty as a mirror of the societal wars which rage over these
conflicting viewpoints. As these opposing viewpoints are debated in our national media, it is refreshing to find an artist whose vision transcends
the conflict and presents a personal view unfettered by the bias of either opinion group.
Mark Reid
At the age of 5, I decided that I would be an artist for the rest of my life. I was born in Roswell, NM and raised on a family owned farm near Dexter, NM where my journey into art began. I started taking lessons at the age of 10 from a local Art Teacher, Dorothy Steinberger, continuing through High School with instruction from a highly respected Artist and School Teacher, Paul Drum. Mr. Drum inspired me and still does to this day. After graduating from Dexter High School, I attended the Colorado Institute of Art and have spent my life doing fine art and graphic design and murals.
My face painting career started in 1994 as a hobby at small festivals using acrylic paints. In 2002 at a festival in Grapevine, TX, I made the acquaintance of another face painter, Judy Kubik, who introduced me to professional make-up. At that time I had no idea how profoundly this would change my life. Since then I have held the position of lead painter and art director for Living Color in Dallas and have done live demos on Channel 8 in New York at the Great New York State Fair and on FOX 4 in Dallas at the Texas State Fair. I was a featured Artist in the Face and Body Painting International Magazine Vol 9 in 2004 and won “Best Over All” at the International Face and Body Art Convention in Orlando. I was also Co-Owner and Art Director for Enchanted Body's in Dallas, a company that specializes in custom body art and photography.
http://www.markreidart.com/index.html
John and Nancy Swearingen
Nancy began studying art at the age of ten through the Cleveland Museum of Art and under the tutelage of her mother Mary Gardiner Nutting, a renowned Cleveland portrait artist. Swearingen became one of the charter students in the world famous Interlochen Arts Academy and continued her education at Michigan State University, Northwestern Michigan College and Western Michigan University, the latter from which she received her B. A. in Fine Art. While she pursued selective graduate studies at Eastern Michigan University, she exhibited her paintings, drawings and etchings in juried art shows and fairs throughout the eastern United States. She also designed and created commissions from residential and commercial projects as chief designer at Adams Mill Studio, a flat (stained) glass studio in Alexandria, Virginia. Swearingen moved to southeastern Michigan to concentrate on portrait and landscape painting and soon met with critical acclaim. Her works exhibited at the Scarab Club, the Michigan Gallery, the Detroit Artist's Market and other venues throughout the greater Detroit area. Fate played a critical part in her decision to focus on photography in 1992 when the onset of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome made it difficult to paint. The camera became her paintbrush and her portraiture work soon received national notice with clientele throughout the United States. She is an award winning photographer from the Professional Photographers of America and her work was displayed in its 2001 Showcase of Photographers.
Linda Denison
Linda Denison holds a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from Eastern Michigan University and a masters degree in Education from THE University of Michigan (Go Blue!).
She is an award winning photographer who's expertise in the natural sciences: geology, Biology zoology and other ologies make her an excellent teacher. In addition to teaching at Midwest Photography Workshops she also teaches "short people" in the Grosse Pointe Public Schools system.
She likes taking long walks with her black Labrador Retriever Einstein (who thinks she is a scientist because she comes with her own "Lab Coat". While Linda is a master teacher, she is also particularly adept in the use of duct tape.
Alvin Haas
Alvin Haas attended the Center for Creative Studies for two years in 1992 to 1993. After school, he assisted many automotive photographers in the Detroit area for a number of years. He started photographing cars and other products commercially for clients such as Ford, Chrysler, Jeep and others. Over the years he has worked in many areas of photography such as shooting portraits, weddings, model comps, wildlife, sports and landscapes. Currently, his work is moving into photographing fashion.
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