John Ganis completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in fine arts at Ohio Wesleyan University
where he also started his experience in New York by interning for Irving Penn and studying
with Lisette Model and Larry Fink. Ganis received his M.F.A. in photography from the
University of Arizona, where he studied with Harold Jones, Todd Walker, and W. Eugene
Smith. In 1980 he began his teaching career in photography at the College for Creative
Studies in Detroit. Portfolios of his photographs have appeared in Aperture Magazine,
Camera Austria International, Focal Plane Journal, Photo News, PDN edu, Photographie
Magazine The Photo Review and Photo Technik International. His photographs were
included the Houston FotoFest 2006 exhibition and accompanying catalog Earth and the
international traveling exhibitions and catalogs Shrinking Cities and Imaging a Shattering
Earth. His work has been reproduced and discussed in Land Matters, Landscape
Photography Culture and Identity by Liz Wells and Undermining, A Wild Ride Through Land
Use, Politics and Art in the Changing West by Lucy Lippard. Photographs by John Ganis
are included in the collections of The Denver Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum of Art,
The Center for Creative Photography, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The George Eastman
Museum, The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, The New York Public
Library, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. His first book on
land use, Consuming the American Landscape, Dewi Lewis Publishing (England) and
Edition Braus (German edition) 2003, included essays by the late Robert Sobieszek and
George Thompson and poems by Stanley Diamond. His second book is America’s Endangered
Coasts, Photographs from Texas to Maine, GFT Books 2016. Ganis was the recipient of the
2008 Harold Jones Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Arizona and the 2007
Honored Educator Award from the Midwest Region of the Society for Photographic
Education. John Ganis is a Professor Emeritus at the College for Creative Studies, retiring
in 2017 after teaching fine art photography for 37 years. Currently, he continues his photo
projects dividing his time between Bradenton, Florida and the Bruce Peninsula in Canada.

John B. Ganis Brief Resume

Selected One Person Exhibits

2022 Iris Gallery & Book Cafe, “Endangered Coast” Cincinnati, Ohio
2020 Studio Rubedo, “Troubled Waters”, Alpena Michigan
2017 9338 Campau Gallery, “America’s Endangered Coasts’ Hamtramck, MI
2015 Spectrum Gallery, “The Endangered Coast”, Rochester, New York
2013 Iris Book Café and Gallery, “Consuming the American Landscape”, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012 Park+Vine, “Ruptures and Reclamations…”, Foto Focus Exhibition, Cincinnati, Ohio
2011 Alumni Gallery, Mowry Alumni Center, John Ganis, Ohio
      Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
2011 Elsie Munro Gallery, “Ruptures and Reclamations…”, Albion College, Albion, MI
2011 Clement Gallery, “Ruptures and Reclamations…”, University of Toledo, Toledo OH
2011 Swords into Plowshares Gallery, “Ruptures and Reclamations, the BP & Enbridge
      Oil Spills” Detroit, MI
2007 U Cen Fine Art Gallery, “Honored Educator”, University of Michigan, Flint, MI
2006 FotoFest International Biennial of Photography, Winter Street Studios, Houston, TX
2004 Spazio DellaVolta, “Il Paesaggio Americano in via di Sparizione” Genoa, Italy
2004 Galerie Lichtblick, “Consuming the American Landscape” Cologne, Germany
2003 Revolution Gallery, “Consuming the American Landscape” Ferndale, MI
2003 Sol Mednick Gallery, “Consuming the American Landscape” The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2002 Blue Sky Gallery, “Consuming the American Landscape” Portland, OR
1996 The Cranbrook Art Museum, “Danger Zone: Corrective Actions at Michigan’s
      Reichhold Chemical Plant,” Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
1991 The Union Square Gallery, “American Soil,” New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibits

2022 FotoFocus, 400 Race Street Galleria, “Critical Distance” Columbus Ohio 2016 Detroit Institute of Arts, “Fifty years of Collecting, DIA Friends of Prints, Drawings and Photographs..” Detroit, MI 2016 Houston Center for Photography, “Members Exhibition”, Houston Texas
2014 PhotoPlace Gallery, The Human-Altered Landscape, Middlebury Vermont
2011 Work Gallery, “Altered Ground”, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2011 Gerald Peters Gallery, “Land Use Misuse”, Santa Fe, NM
2011 Rackham Graduate School Gallery, “The Primacy of Water: Photographic Interpretations”, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
2010 Gallery Project, “Imaging the Future”, Ann Arbor, MI
2008 Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Imaging a Shattering Earth, Ottawa, ON
2007 The New York Public Library, “Making the Scene…” NY, NY
2005 Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas, “Place: Photographs of Environment and Community” Austin, Texas
2005 Painted Bride Art Center, “Paradise Paved” Philadelphia PA
2005 Internationale Fototage Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Germany
1996 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “Crossing the Frontier, Photographs of the Developing West, 1849 to the Present,”
       San Francisco, CA (curated by Sandra Phillips)
1996 Cranbrook Art Museum, “Cranbrook Auto Show,” Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan
1994 Revolution Gallery, “Nature,” Ferndale, MI (invitational)
1992 Center for Creative Photography, “Enthusiasm Strengthens,” University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
1990 Images Gallery, “Contemporary Visions,” Michigan Cincinnati, OH (invitational)
1988 Burden Gallery, Aperture, “Swimmers,” Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
1985 Pace-MacGill Gallery, “Swimmers,” New York, NY
1985 Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, “Naked,” University of Colorado at Boulder (juried
1983 Detroit Institute of Arts, “Recent Acquisitions: Contemporary Collection,” Detroit, MI

Selected Publications
Empire of Ruins, Miles Orvell, (two images used) Oxford University Press, New York 2021
Criticizing Photographs, Terry Barrett, Sixth Edition, (one image used) Routledge Press, London and New York, 2021
Photo Researcher, Poisoned Pictures, “Critical Environments and Photographic Investigations”, Liz Wells (two images used) 2019
Focal Plane Journal, “John Ganis, America’s Endangered Coasts” (ten images used and essay), 2018
America’s Endangered Coasts, Photographs from Texas to Maine, Monograph, 170 images with essays by Liz Wells and
      James Hansen, George Thompson Publishing, Staunton Virginia, 2016
PDN EDU, “Star Teacher, John Ganis, Educator, Author, Environmental Advocate” Volume 15, Issue 2, Fall 2016
Broken, Environmental Photography, “Modes of Investigation…”, Liz Wells (one image used), Art & Theory, Gothenburg 2014
Undermining A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West, Lucy Lippard,
      The New Press, (three images used) 2014
Land Matters, Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity, Liz Wells, I.B. Tauris (one image used) 2011
Metro Times, “Michigan’s Crude Awakening, The Marshall Spill…” (four images used) June 27 2012
Michigan Quarterly Review, “The Great Lakes: ….” (one image used) University of Michigan, 2011
Imaging a Shattering Earth, Exhibition Catalog, Oakland University/CONTACT Toronto 2005/6
Kwartlnik Fotografia, “John Ganis, The American Landscape” (10 images used) Poland, #21 2006
FotoFest 2006, Earth, International Biennial of Photography, Exhibition Catalog, (six images used) 2006
Schrumpfende Stadte (Shrinking Cities), Exhibition Catalog, Hatje Cantz, Berlin, Germany 2004
Consuming the American Landscape, Monograph with texts by Robert Sobieszek, Stanley Diamond, and George Thompson,
      Dewi Lewis Publishing, Stockport England 2003
American Landscapes (German co-edition of monograph) Edition Braus, Heidelberg Germany 2003
Camera Austria International #83, Forum, John Ganis (four images used) Graz, Austria, Fall 2003
Photo Technik International, “Verwundete Landschaft” (eight images used) Germany Nov. 2003
Photographie, “Portfolio John Ganis (five images used), Dusseldorf, Germany, January 2002
Crossing the Frontier: Photographs of the Developing West, 1849 to the Present, SFMOMA (one image used) San Francisco, CA
Aperture Magazine, “Beyond Wilderness”, Issue #120, (three images used) New York, NY, Fall 1990
Swimmers¸ Aperture Book and Aperture Magazine, Issue 111, (one image used) New York, NY, 1988
New American Nudes, Exhibition catalogue/book, Morgan and Morgan, (one image used) Dobbs Ferry, NY 1981

Guest Lecturer
2019 South East Regional Conference, Society for Photographic Education (SPE), Richmond VA
2019 Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida
2015 National Conference, Society for Photographic Education (SPE), New Orleans, LA
2011 Albion College Art Department, Lecture in conjunction with exhibition, Albion MI
2011 Ohio Wesleyan University, Lecture in conjunction with exhibition, Delaware, OH
2009 Northern Michigan University Art Department, Lecture, NMU, Marquette, MI
2008 Center for Creative Photography, Harold H. Jones Distinguished Alumni Lecture, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2008 National Conference, Society for Photographic Education (SPE), Denver, CO
2007 Midwest Regional Conference, Honored Educator Lecture, Society for Photographic Education, Flint, MI

Awards
2008 Harold Jones Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Arizona
2007 Honored Educator, Society for Photographic Education, Midwest Region
2003 Fifty Crows Documentary Photography Fund, North American Finalist
2003 Stuttgart Photo Books Prize, Stuttgart Book Fair, Germany
2003 European Publishers Award, Short-Listed
1990 Creative Artist Grant, Michigan Council for the Arts

Collections

Denver Museum of Art
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Houston Museum of Fine Arts
Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
George Eastman Museum, Rochester NY
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas, Austin Texas
Toledo Museum of Art
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, St. Francis College, Loretto, PA
The University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Osaka University of Arts, Osaka, Japan
The Art Institute of Chicago
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Washington University, Henry Art Gallery, St Louis, MO