“Long Look” and Bruce Thompson

Western Shore, Geneva Lake in Fontana, Wisconsin

December 13, 2023

This is quite the photograph, isn’t it? I made it June 30, 1979. The scene is looking from the western shore of Geneva Lake in Fontana, Wisconsin, toward the east.

Down below the trees in the foreground (but out of view) is Holiday Home Camp. Next in line to the north (and again out of view) are Norman B. Barr Camp, George Williams College (which was not affiliated with Aurora University back in 1979), private residences, and Wesley Woods Camp. The outcropping of trees on the left contains Conference Point Center, and on the other side of the trees (out of view) is Williams Bay, both the village and the bay. (Did you know that part of Geneva Lake also is called Williams Bay?)

In the far distance on the left (or the north shore) quite possibly is Cedar Point. Am I correct? What might be directly across from that on the south shore – The Narrows by Linn Pier?

So, how did I make this photo? Was I aboard a plane or a hot-air balloon? No. Then I must have used a drone. No. Drones have been around in various iterations beginning in 1849, including the first quadcopter in 1907, but the first commercial use of drones in the United States occurred in 2006 when licenses were issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.

This marvelous perspective was courtesy of Fillmore Galaty and his wife Winnifred who owned a house along North Shore Drive in Fontana (though probably technically Walworth Township, a small portion of which is located along the lake). (By the way, today North Shore Drive is called North Lakeshore Drive, and some people write Lakeshore as Lake Shore, which makes the copy editor in me cringe. Why couldn’t the road just have remained North Shore Drive? Same with South Shore Drive.)

I came to know Fillmore when he belonged to the Geneva Lake Association. He was an active member and, if I recall correctly, served as president of the organization. I attended annual association meetings at Big Foot Country Club in Fontana and reported on them for The Times, the weekly newspaper based in Walworth and in my family for most of the years between 1957 and 1986.

Since I also did photography for the paper, Fillmore told me I might be interested in doing photography of Geneva Lake from a special vantage point. So, on that June day 44 years ago I went to the Galaty residence, and Fillmore took me up to the second floor, opened a window, and motioned me to go through it and onto a first-floor roof. I was enthralled!

What a view, eh? The sailboats stand out the most with their white sails, and the craft seem to be going willy-nilly. Sailors viewing this image with trained eyes may recognize that, no, many of the boats are racing on a specific course.

On a technical note, I wish the details of this photograph were sharper. Most of my photos throughout my career have been made with a Leica 35mm camera. While Leica equipment is superb, most notably the lenses, 35mm film does have its limitations due to becoming grainy at higher enlargements and under certain lighting conditions.

One of my biggest regrets is not having done more of my landscape photography with a camera with a larger film format. But, I started as a photojournalist and with the Leica equipment almost from the outset. So, I became accustomed to using it and the flexibility 35mm offers, allowing me to photograph scenes from different perspectives in a short amount of time. Photography with larger formats is more restrictive, more deliberate, and more costly in terms of equipment and materials.

Long ago, I resigned myself to the fact of not worrying excessively about the technical aspects of my images. I try to do the best I can with 35mm, and I do not let its limitations prevent me from sharing my photos. To me, how an image “speaks” to me and anyone viewing it is of prime importance. Someday I will upgrade to digital equipment.

I do not, however, anticipate buying a drone that could pull off a photo similar to “Long Look” with relative ease. I have seen Geneva Lake photos made with drones, and most of the images are pretty neat. Come to think of it, though, I have not seen any in black and white!

Missing My Good Friend Bruce Thompson

One of the most influential persons in my photography career was Bruce Thompson, who spent most of his 73 years of life as a resident of Fontana, Wisconsin. I write this in memory of him, as he died three years ago on December 17. Fortunately, his legacy lives forever through his photography, always available for everyone to admire and appreciate. I have done so on countless occasions since I first came to know him in the mid-1970s.

To learn more about Bruce’s artistic talent (and that of his father Richard and Bruce’s son Ben), I highly encourage you to go to www.thompsonsfineart.com and spend abundant time looking at the images (photographic and painted) and all the supporting written material. I trust you will be impressed. What you see and read may take your breath away.

While Bruce’s and Ben’s works are exceptional, particularly striking is Richard’s impressionistic painting. Keep in mind that often Richard worked from Bruce’s photographs. I often reminded Bruce – and other people – of that fact, but he usually minimized it. I never was sure why he did so.

One of my earliest recollections of connecting artistically with Bruce was when we went for a drive at night in the country on Six Corners Road in Walworth Township, Wisconsin. He pulled his truck off the road by the Leseberg dairy farm, and we got out to look at the scene, which was bathed in the light of a full moon.

The farm had a small pond, and the water often overflowed into the ditch along the road. We stood at the edge of the ditch a couple of minutes observing the details of the pond, cows, barn, and oak trees. Then Bruce told me to look down at the water inches from our feet. There I saw the moon reflected.

I was awestruck, not only by what I saw but what Bruce was teaching me: A common scene can become interesting, captivating, and even magical simply by exploring different ways of seeing it.

For more about Bruce, read the article below I wrote in 2005 for a Geneva Lake Association booklet. Although published 18 years ago, much of the information remains relevant to provide a portrait of Bruce the artist.

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When most people look at Geneva Lake, they see a beautiful body of water. When Bruce Thompson views the lake, he conceives works of art – his outstanding photographs of the lake he calls "the blue jewel."

For more than 30 years Geneva Lake has sparkled in Thompson's imagination. "Water is one of the most fundamental aspects in my work," he said. "I have a primal connection to water. I either have to be on it, near it, or involved with it. I love all aspects it generates, including the life forms and the light forms."

Thompson, 58, is a lifelong area resident, having grown up along Sauganash Drive in Country Club Estates subdivision in Fontana. After living outside Walworth several years in the 1970s, he returned to the house in which he grew up and continues to live there with his wife Joan. They have two grown children, Ben and Emily.

Inspiration from Geneva Lake for art has sparked not only Thompson's creativity but that of his grandfather, father, and son. "The lake is a most unique environment," Thompson said. "It is a special body of water, and it has become a destination because of the water quality and the quality of life."

His grandfather, Abijah Thompson, made a Geneva Lake cottage his destination in the early 1900s. The trips for fishing and swimming provided breaks from his career as an illustrator in Chicago, where he served as the art director for Montgomery Ward.

Accompanying Abijah was Thompson's father Richard, who shared an enchantment with the lake and water. During a career in which he became known as one of the foremost American Impressionist painters he produced 1,800 works, and 75 percent of them contains water.

Ben Thompson, 25, continues the family art heritage and connection to Geneva Lake. He was co-sculptor with Jay Brost, Barb Brost, and Ken Wilson of the life-size bronze sculpture of a windsurfer titled "Summer Breeze" on the Fontana lakefront. Ben also draws and paints, and he is employed as a Web site developer at Miniature Precision Components in Walworth.

Although Bruce Thompson did drawing and painting earlier in his life, "those mediums did not come easily to me," he said. "When I picked up a camera, I saw compositions and whole pictures. Photography became comfortable for me. It was easy."

He started in photography at age 19 while attending the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire as a business major with an art minor. A one-semester photography class changed his life. The class project was a book titled "On Water Street," and Thompson became engrossed in the photography. "I applied what I was imbued with by my dad," he said. "I had all these insights and didn't really know what they meant until I started applying it. It all connected."

His formal education complemented what he began learning at an early age from his father, a painter renowned for his mastery of color and light. "We talked about art, and I was exposed to good art my whole life," Thompson said. "He would show me, and I would respond. He constantly was telling me, `Look at the light,' and I started making connections between light, composition, and pattern.

"When I'm in the throes of creating images, I'm not as aware of the subject as I am the patterns of light," he said. "To me, photographs are compositions of light, not arrangements of subjects. Many people say that I photograph like a painter, and I guess that's because I was taught to see by a painter."

His eyes also were trained by looking at works of famous photographers such as Edward Steichen, Ansel Adams, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. "I looked at great work and said to myself, `I can do that,'" Thompson said. "Through self-awareness you recognize that you have something of talent and start to connect with what you could do."

Thompson has traveled many different roads on his photographic odyssey. He has photographed scenes in the United States as well as Portugal, Spain, France, Israel, Mexico, and Canada.

Within a few years of clicking the shutter for the first time he was recognized for his work. In 1972 he received the Kodak International Snapshot Award. Following that, he earned honors at the annual art show at the Wustum Museum in Racine and several Wisconsin art fairs.

The art fair exposure launched Thompson's three-year stint with the State of Wisconsin Division of Tourism as freelance photographer. His mission was to visually create the image of Wisconsin for tourism.

In 1979, with the addition of a family to support, he opened his own studio and concentrated on commercial photography. For more than 20 years the discipline of producing high-quality work and meeting deadlines made Thompson successful.

That phase of his career involved fashion, industrial, and product photography in addition to annual reports and portraits. His clients included local, regional, and national accounts. "The major benefit of the commercial work was the knowledge," he said. "I had opportunities to try new things. I was thrust into situations and had to figure out what went into the shots."

One of his favorite projects was the photography for the popular book Grand and Glorious: Classic Boats of Lake Geneva. It was published in 2002 by Larry Larkin, a prominent resident of the south shore of Geneva Lake.

In spite of concentrating on commercial photography, Thompson's passion for art never waned. He has no particular preference for subject matter – from landscapes to figures. "I like to discover moments that reveal themselves," he said. "Through my photography I feel an urgency to witness the events of life and partake of the beauty that is all around us. And then I can't wait to hand what I have witnessed to somebody else."

Thompson is especially fond of the Geneva Lake area. "I've always loved it because of the variety with the seasons and the weather conditions," he said. "The light always changes."

His color photographs have adorned many magazines, from At the Lake, Sail, and Wisconsin Trails to National Geographic, Gentleman's Quarterly, and the New England Journal of Medicine. His meticulously printed black and white photographs are included in corporate and private art collections throughout the country.

When commercial photography began changing in the late 1990s due to digital equipment and computer image manipulation, Thompson sensed he eventually would have to alter his approach to photography. Finally, two years ago he decided to concentrate solely on art.

"I decided to follow my heart, and the break had to be cold, swift, and defining," Thompson said. "Since then, my opportunities have grown dramatically. I want people to see me as a very competent artist. When someone buys a piece of my work, I hope it will be revered enough to be passed on to future generations."

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If you wish to comment or ask a question about this post, contact me at frednoer@att.net.