We at Bloom love photography, and over the past 10 years, we’ve published more than 6,000 images, most taken by local photographers. We know that you, our readers, also appreciate good photography — you tell us so when we meet around town and in the letters and emails you send to us.
In the following pages, we present some of our favorite pictures from the past decade. We hope that we’ve selected some of your favorites as well.
Bloom has been fortunate, as an unusual number of talented photographers reside in our city. A fair number have passed through as well. The supremely gifted Steve Raymer, who worked for National Geographic for 25 years, took many of our favorites during his eight-year tenure at Bloom. Shannon Zahnle, a talented local woman with no formal training and little experience when she began taking pictures for us, also produced many strong images during her time at the magazine. A newcomer to Bloom, Stephen Sproull, is doing amazing work and we will be showcasing eight pages of his Monroe County photographs in our December/January issue.
We are thrilled to have Jeff Richardson of Richardson Studio portraiture fame, contributing to the magazine, as well as Jeff’s protégé, John Bailey. The artistic work of Tyagan Miller and Kendall Reeves is very important to the magazine, as are the longtime contributions of photo- journalists James Kellar, Jim Krause, and Darryl Smith. Our reader/photographers submitted a surprising number of favorites, taking pictures for two “One Fine Day in Bloomington” issues in 2008 and 2010. We are doing a third “Fine Day” this year on December 10 (see page 9).
Along with the pictures, I’ve included some brief notes and personal reminiscences about the taking of the photographs.
So, without further ado, I invite you to turn the pages and consider again the artistry of Bloom’s contributing photographers. I, for one, think their work is pretty great. —Malcolm Abrams
