An Amish Family

by Richard Springer

608.393.5995

springerart@yahoo.com

April 14 through June 4, 2008

I came to Wisconsin in the early 1990s to complete a series of paintings for my gallery in Chicago.

My wife and I moved into a small farm located in the heart of an Amish community. The rolling and wooded hills distracted me from working on my exhibition, but it was my association with the Amish families that moved me from painting historical works to recording the simple, but attractive life of my new neighbors in art and photographs.

Although the Amish generally do not allow photographs, a few families allowed me to participate in their daily lives and to photograph them at work and play. This exhibit is a few of the hundreds of photos I took over a six-year period. You may even see in some of the photos the children growing older.

Some of the Amish people I knew during my sojourn have passed on, and the children have grown and now have families of their own. I hope through my art to preserve the memory of the individuals and the experience I was so fortunate to have lived.