Life & Work with Don Werthmann

Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Werthmann.  

Hi Don, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Forged in the City of Detroit, my photographic life spans over forty years. Formed by traditional tools and techniques, it is hammered into its current shape by the hyper-accelerated pace of digital media technology. 

I am part of a quatrain of kids [fourth in birth order], and at a very early age life said, “follow your bliss and live to learn while embracing the idea that this journey is going to be hard work, and then always be adaptable to change.” 

Maybe coincidence, but as things continue to turn out, choosing a career in photo and digital media fit life’s calling. I work hard and most frequently think that life is serious business, but I also seek to enjoy moments when it doesn’t need to be, by going back-country hiking or traveling to a foreign country. I am just an awful musician yet discovered some time ago that I have perfect pitch, which simply means that I have plenty more work to do. 

Teaching photography at Washtenaw Community College since January 2000 is certainly fulfilling my life calling, and my personal business, Quatrain Fotographic LLC <https://quatrainfotographic.com>, sets out to offer services and products that bring out the best in me as a teacher, digital artist, visual poet, and passionate practitioner of photography. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not at all! 

A very awkward and traumatic childhood and adolescence prevailed. I was not a model student. I got by. When I was sixteen, my sister let me borrow her 35mm camera to take on summer vacation. Two weeks and 20 rolls of color film, was the spark that ignited my lifelong career. Photography was something that spoke to my instincts with great clarity. My inner voice said, “follow this!” 

Senior year in high school, I took my first photography class, and I became deeply intrigued with camera technology, BW film processing, and working in the darkroom. It was a magical time, and I was so excited and compelled by this art form, but I could never really put a finger on why. It just felt right, and that’s all I needed. 

Decades later, after numerous sessions of processing life episodes and events with my therapist, I had this epiphany that photography is my greatest ally and coping mechanism. I could express myself without interference of anyone else. Photography became a way to escape the tumult of life. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
In the literary world, a quatrain is limited to four-line stanzas of any kind; rhymed, metered, or otherwise. These constructions honor the quatrain with a four-image sequence that’s designed as a fusion of symbols to convey metaphor and idea. They also support teaching visual literacy. 

I began this body of work several years after graduate school, with Apple in the field, Adobe in the studio, and Google blog on the Internet. I made a rule to blog post one quatrain per week for sixteen consecutive weeks. The workflow-enabled my intuition to post-visualize several possible aesthetic and visual relationships from randomly found places, objects, and lyrical moments of everyday life. 

Over subsequent years the Quatrain Project took on a life of its own, and now there are forty that align with its original set of rules. In the blog, each construction is accompanied with a short, written narrative to articulate intent and some context. However, when displayed in a web gallery and in print exhibits then a statement such as this, series number, and image title are the only clues offered. 

Seen solely as a print, viewers are invited to form their own meaning. When reduced to a humble, literal bookmark, then all sorts of meta-relationships can be discovered. 

This personal project intersects with my professional life as a teacher. When presented to students in all the aforementioned media, facets of my creative process are revealed, principles of design and image sequencing for portfolio development are pointed out, and visual literacy concepts are cited. 

Teaching visual literacy with photography is a career-spanning ethos and core topic of my M.A.thesis. And from that essay, a question persists. Can an average viewer understand the logos and pathos of a quatrain? I want to bring awareness and value to visual literacy so that the many forms of traditional and digital media arts become standard markers of social and academic success. 

What students discover in the process of creating and understanding visual art is that it’s multidimensional, as it involves references to history, semiotics, and psychology, let alone serving as a product and reflection of time and place. 

A book featuring the Quatrain Project is currently in production. 

https://quatrainfotographic.com 

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
1) Find a mentor that produces work that compels and excites you. Meaning you want to learn how to do what they do to inspire your personal vision. 

2) Be proactive and persistent to network with people in person and not exclusively in social media platforms. 

3) Be patient, and do not be discouraged by “rejections.” Keep working on your work, even if you’re still at the grocery store or delivering pizzas. So what? Nobody’s life or career has a destination — the journey *is* the destination. 

4) Network outside of your discipline. Meet writers, designers, musicians, engineers, nurses, the Zamboni driver. You get the idea. It’s not what you know; it’s who you know! 

5) Show up and work hard. Try this sometime: as a paying participant of a conference or trade show, show up extra, extra early to the event. Get in. Mingle around. Ask the event staff if they need any help putting things together before the event starts. 

6) Be ready and agile to say ‘yes’ to opportunities that you didn’t see coming your way. If I didn’t do this sort of thing my photographic life would not be what it is today. Take the risk, feel the fear, and do it anyway. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://quatrainfotographic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/don_werthmann/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donwerthmann/
• Other: https://courses.quatrainfotographic.com/index.php

Image Credits
Don Werthmann