Statement
For almost 40 years, I’ve been sailing off the beaches of Lake Michigan. As a kid and now a father with children, I’ve always loved the shore. As time has marched on, I’ve noticed the increase in plastics on the beach year after year. A few years ago, I started collecting and disposing of the plastic bits I would find. Now I collect plastic to create photogram photographs. The images depict plastic parts and pieces as underwater creatures. The pieces dramatize, for now, a fictitious state where plastics displace nature. I’ve been calling this series, “Lacus Plasticus”.   RZ

Bio
My memory of a love for photography started early on. Using my father’s Pentax Spotmatic during a family road trip to Cape Canaveral, I clearly remember taking photographs of an early rocket sitting on its launch pad. By 14, I had my own darkroom and was very fortunate to have a very good photography department in my high school. This gave me the tools to move on to Rochester Institute of Technology, where I gained a solid technical background in photographic illustration. Wishing to explore photography as fine art and art in general, I moved on to study at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I received a BFA in photography and sculpture in 1991.

My personal pursuits in photography have not waned through the years. Though my subject matter is varied, the intensity and thought put into each project is the same. While some work has been produced as digital prints from both color negatives and digital files, most of my work is done traditionally in a personal darkroom that I’ve maintained for the last 35 years. In the same time, I’ve used many alternative processes such as kallitypes, ambrotypes, cyanotypes, and orotones in my art. My work in orotones has been included in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Research on the Conservation of Photographs project.

My work has been a part of the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Midwest Photographers Project in Chicago and is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, TX. A recipient of an Illinois Art Council Fellowship and a Buhl Foundation Grant, I have also been featured in publications including Black & White Magazine, Photography Quarterly, Diffusion Magazine, Camera Arts Magazine and Photo District News, as well as many others. I am currently represented by Etherton Gallery in Tucson, AZ and Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. -RZ

CV
Education
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, BFA, 1991,
Concentration: Photography, Sculpture

 Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, May 1986–December 1987,
Concentration: Photographic Illustration

Collections
Capital One Corporate Art Collection, Capital One, Chicago IL, 2017
Joan Morgenstern Private Collection, Houston, TX, 2012
Museum Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, 2008
Getty Conservation Institute, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2007
Collections, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2008
Richard & Ellen Sandor Family Collection, Chicago, IL, 2007
Deloitte & Touche Corporate Art Collection, Deloitte Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2006
Museum Art Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX, 2005
Midwest Photographers Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, 2003-05
Harris Bank Corporate Art Collection, Harris Bank, Chicago, IL, 2003
Sprint Corporate Art Collection, Sprint World Headquarters, Overland Park, KS, 2002
Multiple private collections, 1991-2019

Publication
Unconventional Photography, Diffusion Magazine Volume 10, 2019
Fotomagazine, Germany, 2017
Alternative Printing Process, Black & White Magazine, October 2016
The Hand Magazine, Issue 10, 2015
Black + White Photography, United Kingdom, 2015
The Hand Magazine, Issue 9, 2015
Fotomagazine, Germany, 2015
Unconventional Photography, Special Issue Volume #1 – Limited Edition, Diffusion Magazine, 2013
Understanding the Effect That Photographs Have on Us: Case Studies in Photographic Criticism, James R. Huginin, 2012
The Photo Review, 2012
Newspace Center for Photography, Retrospective, 2011
Unconventional Photography, Diffusion Magazine Volume 3, 2011
Photography Annual, Photo District News, May, 2007, 2008
Artist Showcase, CamerArts Magazine, March, 2007, 2008
Photography Now, Photography Quarterly #91, Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, 2005
Spotlight Feature, Black & White Magazine, December, 2003

Grants/Awards
Third Place, Choice Awards, Center, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
Second Place, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2007, 2012
Honorable Mention, Regional Exhibition, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, 2012
First Prize, The Photo Review International Photography Competition, The Photo Review, Boston MA, 2011
Illinois Arts Council Photography Fellowship Award, 2009
Featured Artist, 15th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2009
Winner, New Works Gallery Competition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
Honorable Mention, Singular Image Competition, Center, Santa Fe, NM, 2009
Third Place, Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2009
Jurors’ Choice, Alternative Process Show, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, September, 2007
Critical Mass Top 50 Entries, Photolucida, 2006, 2007
Honorable Mention, International Photography Awards, 2004, 2007
Buhl Foundation 4th Biennial Grant, Buhl Foundation, New York, NY, 2004

Teaching/Speaking/Other
Board Member, Artist Representative, Bucktown Arts Fest, Chicago, IL 2007–present
Hosted photography camp for teens, summer 2012, 2015, 2016
Artist Lecture, Chicago Photography Center, 2005, 2011
Artist Lecture and Workshop, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2008
Juror: 3rd Annual Juried Photography Exhibit, Morpho Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Instructor: Basic Darkroom Photography, Alternative and Historical Processes, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, Fall 2007
A Career in Photography Workshop, Burley Elementary School, Chicago, IL, 2003, 2004, 2007
Photography Workshop, Ogden Elementary School, Chicago, IL, 2003

Recent Exhibitions
One-Of-A-Kind, Obscura Gallery, Albuquerque, NM, 2019
International Juried Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, 2019
Alternative Process Photography Exhibition, Image Flow Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, 2019
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2019
Alternative Visions, Lightbox Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2019
Alternative Perspective, The Art Center, Dover, NH, 2019
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2018
13^th Annual Alternative Process Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2017
Remnants: On the Edge of Avant-Garde and Antiquarian Photography, Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR, 2016
74th Rockford Midwestern Biennial, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2016
The Photography Show – Presented by AIPAD, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, 2016
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2016
Photography Re-imagined, Tilt Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, 2016
Alternative Cameras: Pinholes to Plastic, Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2015
Space Oddity, Wallspace Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 2015
11^th Annual Alternative Process Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2015
Alternative Process, Texas Photographic Society, Odessa TX, 2015
Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Gallery, Gilbert, AZ, 2015
Breaking Ground, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, 2014
The Curve Exhibition, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM, 2014
Photo LA, The 23rd Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
Photo Objects and Small Prints, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2013
Unconventional Photography, 15th Lishui International Photography Festival, Lishui, China, 2013
Under Glass, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2013
8th Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2012
Regional Exhibition, South Haven Arts Center, South Haven, MI, 2012
Best of Show: The Photo Review 2011 Competition Prize Winners,
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2011
Solo Exhibition: Mixing it Up, Historically, Chicago Photography Center, Chicago, IL, 2011
Art Chicago, photo-eye Gallery, Chicago IL, 2010
Alternatives: Uncommon & Unconventional Processes, Minneapolis Center for Photography, Minneapolis, MN, 2010
Blue, Photoplace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 2010
NIMBY, New Works Gallery Competition, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
5th Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo, New York, NY, 2009
15th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2009
BareWalls, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2001–2009
Photo Forum Exhibition, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Houston, TX, 2008
Second Annual Mary Beth Creiger Memorial Photo Exhibition,
Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago IL, 2008
Our Environment; the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2008
NIMBY, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2008
NIMBY Solo Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2008
Elemental/Environmental: SPACE, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA, 2008
Annual Photography Re-Imagined, Tilt Gallery, Phoenix, AZ, 2007, 2008
Found at fotofest, John Cleary Gallery, Houston, TX, 2008
Resurrection; A New Look at Old Photographic Processes, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR, 2008
Evanston + Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1994, 2002, 2008
Third Annual Alternative Processes Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2007
Member’s Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2007
First Annual Mary Beth Creiger Memorial Photo Exhibition, Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Fotowerk 2007, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2007
Alternative Processes Exhibition, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2007
13th Annual Juried Show, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2007
DIA Art Exhibition, Denver International Airport, Denver, CO, 2007
Members’ Exhibition, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA, 2006
Members’ Exhibition, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
Black & White, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
NIMBY, Mars Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2006
Photo Works of the 21st Century, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
Positive Negative, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2006
National Competition Exhibition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
1st Annual National Juried Exhibition, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR, 2005
Online Onsite, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2005
Photo LA, photo-eye Gallery, Los Angles, CA, 2004
AAF Contemporary Art Fair, Meter Gallery, New York, NY,2004
Photo San Francisco, Lyonswier Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2004
Serial, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
Curators’ Choice, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2004
Rockford Midwest Exhibition, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2004
Darkroom Only, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2003
Artist’s Open, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago, IL, 2003
Anti-Spacesuit, The Dirty Future, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 2003
Around the Coyote, Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Chicago, IL, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003,
Curators’ Choice Award, 1999, 2001, 2003
Outside the Box, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
Momento Momenta, ART of the Central Coast Art Gathering, Morro Bay, CA, 2002
Unnatural Landscapes, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2002
4 Corners, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 2001
Urban Archeology, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
In Transit, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2001
Modern Ruins, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
Emotional Landscape, Flatfile Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2000
Urban Views, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association, Chicago, IL, 1997
Annual Show, Wilmette Arts Guild, Wilmette, IL, 1990–1997, Purchase Award, 1995, 1996
The Signature Show, John Hancock Building, Signature Lounge, Chicago, IL, 1994
18th Biennial Regional Art Competition, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN, 1993
One Man Show, Izimbra, Chicago, IL, 1993
Amalgamations, Gallery 2, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Ill, 1992

Check out Ryan Zoghlin’s website