Ray Hartl:
I was born in 1949 in Valparaiso, Indiana, and
grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where I attended elementary
and secondary school. From 1968 until 1972, I attended the
University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, majoring in Natural
Resources and Geography.
It was in 1971, while a student at the University, that
my interest in photography began. In April of that year I
traveled to the Soviet Union for a three week study tour sponsored
by the University of Wisconsin. I purchased my first camera
to record the sights of Russia and returned from the tour
with a growing interest in photography and a desire to learn
all I could about the media, both technically and as an art
form. The following semester I enrolled in the University's
two offerings, a basic camera handling and black and white
darkroom course, and an evening extended services lecture
"Photography as an Art Form" by T.K. Chang of Stevens
Point. Those courses, along with a color printing class at
Milwaukee Area Technical College are the extent of my formal
training in photography and art.
I graduated from the University in December of 1972 with
a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geography and was promptly
drafted into the army. I served for two years, eighteen months
of that time in Germany. Most of my free time was spent traveling
through southern Europe taking pictures, developing printing
skills in an army darkroom facility, and reading every photography
publication that was available at the time.
After discharge from the service in I decided to pursue
fine art photography as an occupation. Since 1977 I have traveled
and photographed extensively through New England and the Canadian
Maritime Provinces, the Southwestern States, Hawaii, Florida,
Japan, Europe, Central and South America.
My work has been exhibited throughout the country in
art museums, galleries, and at juried art fairs, and are represented
in many public, private, and corporate collections. My wife,
Nancy Schieferstein, is also a photographer.
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