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Michael J. Elderman
Photographer
Michael J. Elderman first knew he might be a good photographer when his aunt, who never liked anything, told him she admired a portrait he had taken of her with his Brownie Hawkeye camera when he was 11 years old.
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Jump ahead to Michael in his 30s, starting a photography business with a friend, but always keeping an artistic component going as well. His first exhibit, at the Inland Empire Gallery in 1978, was Wedding Nights and Other Fantasies—semi-nude portraits of friends that celebrated Michael himself getting married that year. In 1982, a solo show of his series of portraits of creative friends and others appeared at the Riverside Art Museum. Shortly after that, he had a solo show at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art of his Xmas à la SoCal work—humorous and wry photos of how Southern Californians treated Christmas in a warm climate.
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In this mix was a series of portraits of writers done at UCR and elsewhere, shown at Back to the Grind and on permanent exhibit in the halls of the Creative Writing Department at UCR. Next came The World’s Playground—photos which darkly portrayed the transition to casino gambling in Michael’s hometown of Atlantic City, NJ. It showed at the Atlantic City Museum in New Jersey, as well as in group shows in Everett, Washington, and Riverside.
Finally, two solo exhibits of Michael’s Fox Theater work, based on his book about the restoration of Riverside’s Fox Theater, showed at the Riverside Art Museum and the Brandstater Gallery at La Sierra University. His Urban Dance Riverside work began in 2010 or so and continues into the present. Images have been shown at Division 9 Gallery, RCAA Gallery, The Makery in Los Angeles, and several others.
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Michael is known for his commercial and art photography in Riverside as “The Eyes of Riverside.”