Alumni Spotlight: Carl Corey
B.S. 1976 — Cinema & Photography; School of Mass Communications and Media Arts
SIU Alumnus, Carl Corey, has been taking pictures since the age of nine, but prefers to be known as a documentarian, rather than a photographer. Anyone looking at his work can see why.
His works depict the American Landscape in stark composure — he treats the country’s post-industrial mid-west culture, its people, and its struggle to retain integrity with care, providing a color-saturated window into a way of life balancing on the edge of erasure.
Corey has won more than 100 awards from the advertising, publishing and photography communities, including The Crystal Book Award, and the Midwest Publishers Gold Book Award.
He is also the author of several award-winning photography books: Rancher (Bunker Hill, 2007), Tavern League (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2011, For Love and Money (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2014), and Americaville (A Cottage Industry Publication).
His most recent accolade comes in the form of a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, a grant given to a select group of individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.
When asked how he thought the award might affect his work, Corey seemed slightly shocked that he had been chosen.
“It’s the first time I applied for a major fellowship. It’s nice to know someone is looking. I really don’t know how it will impact my life beyond the financial support. It’s all a bit new,” Corey said.
When Corey returned to campus in 2011 to present his book “Tavern League,” offer critiques of student work, and participate in a digital printing seminar, he shared that when he was first starting out, an art director in Chicago told him some of his pictures were okay, “but no better than many others he could get and not as good as some,” but encouraged him to return with work that was unique.
Corey said that while that assessment was depressing, it was the best critique he ever received.
“I feel there is no value to a critique if the truth is held back. I want to see (the students’) best work — the pictures that reflect their voice as an artist. Bodies of work are always preferred to random work with no continuity. I want to see pictures they feel a need to make.”
And Corey knows about the need to make art. While at SIU Carbondale Corey and his cohort made little distinction between their academic and personal lives.
“I really cannot separate life from academic studies as it’s what I did for enjoyment, as well as to accomplish my degree. I was passionate to learn. The small towns of the area, as well as the geography, are fond memories, truly inspirational. The photography majors traveled around the area documenting what we saw. It was a remarkable time,” Corey said.
Corey has high praise for the Cinema and Photography Department as well.
“SIU is where I was allowed to explore and wander creatively. I was trained in the craft and nurtured in the art,” Corey said.
He also cites the guiding hand of C&P Emeritus Professor, Dave Gilmore, as being important to his success.
“David Gilmore was the most influential person in my career. He gave me a very good foundation in the craft of photography — he encouraged his students to excel and commit to the art always questioning our motives to make us think. We still communicate regularly,” Corey said.
Corey also maintains a daily blog, which bears the same name as one of his books: Americaville.
On the to the online storytelling platform Visura, Corey explained that Americaville was created as a syndicated picture column.
“My intention is to share observations and use one simple line of text to focus the viewer on my thoughts at the time I saw the picture. Americaville can be a little snarly at times, humorous at others, but always a portrayal of contemporary American culture,” he said.
These days Corey’s home base is River Falls, Wisconsin when he is not on the road documenting the cultural and economic landscape of the United States.
His work can be found in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI, and the Microsoft Art Collection, among others.
You can also connect with more of his photographs, books, special projects and exhibitions can be seen on his website and on Instagram, and his portrait work can be seen on his Facebook Page.
Alumni Spotlight celebrates our Saluki Alumni and their memories of their time at SIU Carbondale. We focus on a different Alumni each week, and publish the feature on Wednesday afternoons on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
If you’d like to be the focus of this weekly feature, or nominate someone to be featured, please get in touch with the SIU Alumni Association, or email us at alumni-socialmedia@siu.edu.
