Walter sheffer

Walter S. Sheffer (August 7, 1918 - July 14, 2002) was an American photographer and teacher, born in Youngsville, Pennsylvania. He moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1945 to work at the studio of John Platz until founding his own portrait studio in 1953 on Ogden Avenue and taught advanced portraiture at the Layton School of Art from 1952 to 1970 .

Early Career

The quality of the photographic portraits Sheffer made at his studio using natural light and dramatic darkroom techniques were known as possessing the "Sheffer look". His portraits of Milwaukee's mid-century social elite, artists and lost architecure earned him the title of "Photographers of Photographers" from the Wisconsin Professional Photographers Association in 1955. His clients included actor Jimmy Stewart, Comedienne Tallulah Bankhead, and politician Joseph McCarthy. He also created a "Portraits of Men" series for DuPont Co. in 1955 and photographed theater productions at Marquette University from 1955-1968. He was president of the Milwaukee Photo Pictorialists and the Darlot Society both groups favoring pictorial style soft focus lenses, and deep shadows in prints. Among his most notable students at the Layton School of Art was Larry Clark who often sites Sheffer as an early artistic influence.

Mid Career

Sheffer photographed Victorian building facades and architectural fragments for the Heritage Milwaukee: The Esthetics of the City exhibition organized by and exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Center April 2-May 10, 1964. Director Tracy Atkinson wrote of Sheffer "A city is fortunate to have a chronicler with so perceptive an eye. A long-time Milwaukee resident, Sheffer is among that small group of people in love with the face of the city, and he is, in addition, an artist acutely sensitive to its many moods and its slightest changes of expression."

Late Career

Sheffer gained national attention in the mid-1980s for his "Faces of Aging" series which showed in Milwaukee, Newport Beach, San Diego, Chicago, Washington DC and Seattle. The exhibition included 35 portraits of his fellow residents at the River Hills East Health Care Center on Milwaukee's east side. Together with artist Sue Bartfield, he was honored in 1985 by the National Council on Aging in Washington D.C. for his work.

Sources

James Auer and Fanny White. "Photographer Sheffer helped others to open eyes", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2002.

Joy Gross Berman and Tracy Atkinson. "Heritage-Milwaukee", Arrow Press, Milwaukee, March 1964.