Wentzel Photography Show

Collegeville, Minn. - Saint John's University and the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library present an exhibit of photography by Volkmar and Fritz Wentzel through Aug. 13. Volkmar Wentzel's photographs, "Memories of Africa," are on display in the Alice R. Rogers Gallery. This exhibit is accompanied by works of Volkmar's father in the Dayton Hudson Gallery. Fritz Wentzel's (1877-1963) vintage photographs, "Faces of the Balkans (1906-1910)", are displayed in the Dayton Hudson Gallery.

Now in his eighties, Volkmar Wentzel began his photography career photographing the atmosphere of pre-war Washington, D.C., in the 1930s. His work earned him a spot on the Geographic in 1937 and he has since built a decades-long career as one of the most widely traveled staff photographers of the National Geographic.

Exploring new areas in his art often meant traveling to the far corners of the world on assignment; as he did over a 22 year span, documenting Africa, just before Africa began its difficult and often traumatic transition from colonialism to self rule in the 1960s.

The exhibition, "Memories of Africa", looks into a few of the diverse time-honored traditions of 250 million Africans speaking some 800 different languages and dialects, composed of many different ethnic groups and clans, cultural traditions and religions ranging from animism to Islam to Christianity. Volkmar Wentzel's photographs range from a feudal sultan with 400 wives to a Zulu king, from tribal chiefs and shamans to hereditary rulers, from the wedding ceremonies of a Swazis princess to campus life at the University of Zululand. The exhibit explores a sense of the endless variety, beauty and vibrancy of an evolving continent. It provides insight into the complex nature of Africa's people, places, and memories.

"Balkan Views" gives a portrait of a gentler chapter in the history of the Balkans - of a time when Muslims, Orthodox and Latin Christians lived in relative harmony and offered a successful model of a multi-cultural society. Captured by the camera of Dr. Fritz Wentzel (1877-1963), these photographs are the result of his successive travels through the Balkan areas of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire on the eve of World War I. Throughout his journeys Fritz Wentzel was struck by the faces, cultures, towns and villages that emanated from so many traditions. Together they seemed to yield a wonderful portrait of peoples bound together harmoniously.

A distinguished photo-chemist and dedicated photographer since childhood, Fritz Wentzel earned his doctorate at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin in 1908. Later in life he was awarded the prestigious silver and gold medals of the Vienna Photographic Society for outstanding technical achievement. Wentzel's photographs reflect the pictorialist trend of the time with its emphasis on composition, craftsmanship and eventually the sensuous quality of a good print. Wentzel's originals were taken on glass plates, and those glass plates have been scanned into a computer and then reproduced as IRIS prints by Old Town Prints of Alexandria, Virginia.

In presenting this exhibit, the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Fritz Wentzel's photographer-son, Volkmar Wentzel, as well as the advice of Thomas Emmert of the history department of Gustavus Adolphus College. Both played key roles in the selection of photographs for viewing. This exhibit is sponsored in part by Target - Dayton Hudson, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Summer gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. For more information call (320) 363-2701.

Saint John's University for men and the College of Saint Benedict for women are partners in liberal arts education, providing students the opportunity to benefit from the distinctions of not one, but two nationally recognized Catholic, undergraduate colleges. Together the colleges challenge students to live balanced lives of learning, work, leadership and service in a changing world.