PHANTASMAGORIA: Photography by Eric Munch opens Thursday, Aug. 7, at Community Arts Center in Hancock

PHANTASMAGORIA: Photography by Eric Munch will open August 7, 2025, at the Copper Country Community Arts Center in Hancock. The exhibit continues through August 30, 2025, with a reception on Thursday, August 7. Click on poster for larger version. (Poster courtesy Copper Country Community Arts Center)

HANCOCK -- PHANTASMAGORIA is the new exhibition at the Copper Country Community Arts Center's Kerredge Gallery featuring photographs by Calumet artist Eric Munch. The exhibit will be on display from August 7 through August 30, 2025. 
 
When Eric Munch is going out to shoot photographs, he looks for the unusual, the subtle or the odd in the landscape. Over the years he has spent a lot of time photographing the rugged shoreline of Lake Superior, the quiet places on the mainland, the wilds of Isle Royale and the night sky. He approaches photographing natural subjects such as trees, waves, and ice formations in a sculptural sense, adding a bit of surrealism to the familiar landscape. In addition to fine art photography, Eric's professional career also includes commercial work as a wedding photographer and photojournalist.

Everyone is welcome to the opening reception for this exhibition from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 7. Eric will give a brief talk about his work and inspiration, and refreshments will be served. This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Copper Country Community Arts Center is located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. For more information call (906) 482-2333 or visit the website www.coppercountryarts.com

New photography exibit by Eric Munch to open at Community Arts Center July 10

"Winter Moonscape" by Eric Munch, part of the exhibit of his recent photographs, opening July 10 at the Copper Country Community Arts Center's Kerredge Gallery. (Photo © and courtesy Eric Munch)

HANCOCK -- Real Illusions: New Landscapes is the title of an exhibition of photographs by Eric Munch at the Kerredge Gallery in the Copper Country Community Arts Center. The photographs, taken mostly in the last year, appear to have been altered or distorted; but they are natural, without digital manipulation. The mysterious quality of the images is achieved through length of exposure, the time of day (or night), their viewpoints, and atmospheric effects. The thread that runs through this body of work is the many forms that water takes.

"Despite its ubiquity, water still has the capability to surprise me -- even after forty years in photography," Munch says.

The public is invited to an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 10. The exhibition will run through August 2, 2014.

Eric Munch returned to the Copper Country, the place of his roots, in 1980 to document the local landscape. His work depicts the people, remains of mining history, and the natural beauty of the Copper Country. His love for the landscape has also taken him to Isle Royale and the provincial parks of Canada; to Quebec; and to Cornwall, England. In addition to his work as a fine art photographer, Eric owns and operates a commercial photography business, Photography by Eric Munch, in Calumet.

The Kerredge Gallery is located in the Copper Country Community Arts Center, 126 Quincy Street in Hancock. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Carnegie Museum to host Aug. 13 reception for "Last Days of Italian Hall: Photographs of Calumet's Italian Hall 1981-1988" by Eric Munch

Photographer Eric Munch is pictured here in the Italian Hall Ballroom, Calumet, in September 1983, before the building was demolished. Munch is exhibiting a series of his photos of Italian Hall at the Carnegie Museum in Houghton and will speak at a reception on Aug. 13. (Photo © 2013 and courtesy Eric Munch. Reprinted with permission.)

HOUGHTON -- The Carnegie Museum in downtown Houghton will host a reception for "Last Days of Italian Hall: Photographs of Calumet's Italian Hall 1981-1988" by local photographer Eric Munch from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13. Photographer Munch will speak at 6:30 p.m.

On Christmas Eve 1913, families of striking copper miners gathered in Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan, for a holiday party. According to several witnesses, someone yelled, "Fire!!" -- and, in the ensuing panic to flee the second story ballroom, 73 people, 59 of them under age 17, were crushed to death in the stairway.

"Last Days of Italian Hall" is a series of 21 photographs, taken by Eric Munch, professional photographer, of Italian Hall before, during, and after its 1984 demolition. Munch first visited the building as a child in 1967 while in Calumet for a family reunion. Though his grandfather and great aunt had attended the 1913 Christmas party, he was at first unaware of the tragic history of the building.

After moving to Calumet in 1980, Mr. Munch photographed the exterior of Italian Hall on several occasions and in 1981 and 1983 he was able to photograph inside the building. In 1984 he documented the demolition and the crowd that gathered to watch as the building was torn down.

Other exhibits at Carnegie Museum

Other exhibits currently at the Carnegie Museum include the following:

"Rural Reflections: Finnish American Buildings and Landscapes in Michigan's Copper Country" -- photographs by Ryan Holt with Historical Narrative by Arnold Alanen.

"Family Ties: Memorials to Those Lost in the 1913 Italian Hall Tragedy" -- an exhibit by the Houghton Keweenaw County Genealogical Society.

"From the Old School: Memories from the Old Houghton High School 1923 - 1989" -- oral histories about life in "the Old School."

The Carnegie Museum is on the corner of Huron and Montezuma in Houghton, Mich. Regular hours are Tuesday and Thursday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. The museum is open to the public and there is no entry fee. For more information email history@cityofhoughton.com or call (906) 482-7140.