CELEBRATING BILL RAUHAUSER, PHOTOGRAPHER

“Rauhauser is a great Detroit photography hero and his images portray Detroit and its people in an honest, fair and beautiful way.” –White Walls Collective.  

A phenomenal exhibition has recently opened at the Detroit Public Library, a rare treat and celebration of Detroit by its quitely active and most devoted image chronicler. A slide show of several thousand photos rotates on DVD in a  continuous loop, projected onto a flat screen monitor, digging deep into the  photographer’s private archive. Be prepared to spend a couple hours to view each image during its four seconds of screen time. No less then a photographic treasure-trove for the populace of Detroit, the Rauhauser collection will enable future generations to look back at their city through the beatific sensibility and sensitive eyes of one of its most generous and caring artist-citizens.

For more than 60 years Detroit photographer Bill Rauhauser has captured this complex and beautiful city through his camera. This is an exceptional and extraordinary gift of several thousand photographs and represents an amazing visual chronology of the city of Detroit. The exhibition is located in the Burton Historical Collection Reading Room, at the Main Library.

Several hundred of Rauhauser’s images have also been recently obtained by the Detroit Institute of Arts, photography department, perhaps making this its largest single holding of any photographer. A superb honor and  lifetime recognition for this highly focused and dedicated artist. 

Bill Rauhauser has taught many generations of photographers through four decades of photo history classes at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. He is an artist without pretentions, who has recently tackled the changes happening in digital image making. His own work has never held still or become static, as he moves through ideas from street documentation to fantasy architectural still lifes, to imagining single soulful objects. He has rightly assumed the mantle of the creative flâneur  – a sort of urban stroller who not only views and documents the city but paticipates in the debate,  construction and meaning of the urban landscape.

Rauhauser continually keeps up with photo developments, reading constantly, and thinking of new ways to look and document. Bill maintains and mentors an area photography group of professional photographers and photo educators meeting every 6-8 weeks in the backroom at Book Beat. He also meets with artists and retired faculty from CCS in another group. His seemingly boundless energy, challenging work and ongoing photo and book projects make him an inspiration to all photographers and artists who have made Detroit their home. A short online slideshow of Bill’s work can been seen at the Detroit Focus site: Bill Rauhauser: A Lifetime in Photography.

Books by Bill Rauhauser: 

image at top: by Bill Rauhauser, taken on the Detroit River was chosen by Edward Stiechen and included in the iconic Family of Man exhibition.