Formed in 2011, photographer Michael Johnson has hosted the Photographers Salon at Featherstone on Tuesday evenings during the summer months. Photographers and art enthusiasts gather in the Francine Kelly Gallery, and each week, a featured artist presents their body of work and discusses their creative process and inspiration. Discussion and networking follow each presentation. The Photographers Salon meets Tuesdays early July though mid-August at 7:00 pm and is free and open to the public.

2021 marks our 10+1 season of the Photographers Salon!
This summer we will celebrate the 10th season of the Photographers Salon (2020 season was cancelled due to the pandemic, therefore we will celebrate our 10+1 anniversary)! Michael Johnson is compiling a group of presenters for this anniversary season and we are looking forward to meeting once again on Tuesday nights to see beautiful images and hear the stories behind them.

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​2021 presenting artists:

John Rosenmiller began photographing in the empty and eerie streets of New York City at the  outset of the covid-19 quarantine in spring, 2020.  His still portraits of the city and the few people out in the streets became the focal point of a short documentary, “City of Covid:  New York During Quarantine.”  John’s photos were featured on the popular Instagram accounts @quentin.quarantino and @officialspikelee as well as on the CNN show, Anderson Cooper 360.  
In addition to this body of work, John has photographed extensively throughout the island of Cuba since 2014.

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Jeremy Driesen has photographed rock stars and celebrities, titans of business, nutty little kids, and everything in-between. He has shot events for Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, NBC, L’Oreal, Time Inc., WarnerMedia, and many more. On Martha’s Vineyard, he shoots regularly for The MV Times and has been the official photographer for Beach Road Weekend, Taste of The Vineyard, and The Vineyard Concert Series. He’s been featured in Boston Magazine, Vineyard Style, MV Arts & Ideas, Martha’s Vineyard Magazine, and on WMVY Radio. His work has been used on American Idol and Vineyard Noir is his book of a different side of Vineyard life.

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Having spent his entire adult life on Martha’s Vineyard, Dan Waters works with black-and-white film of all sizes, from 35mm to 8x10. In 2018 he began creating a Time Capsule for the MV Museum, to preserve the Island’s human landscape in an archivally permanent medium. This documentation gained new urgency during the pandemic, the recent election, and moments of social protest. Then, in the enforced isolation of the Covid lockdown, Dan found release by walking the vast uninhabited hills and beaches of the Island, capturing familiar vistas in a timeless way through a century-old lens on a wooden view camera. His recent work thus ranges from contemporary photojournalism to the dreamy Pictorialism of a past century.

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Kate Patterson is a Washington, D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard based photojournalist and photo editor who works with companies and individuals to tell their stories.
For forty-some years, photography continues to be Kate’s passion.  Over the years she has enjoyed creating archival prints of plants and found objects, and exploring the expressive possibilities of alternative techniques with film emulsion and Polaroid transfers.  Today, her passion subjects include family, landscape, and her two dogs, Izzy and Lena.

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Inkwell Beach and the Oak Bluffs Polar Bears: 2010 to 2021 - an artistic photo journal history presented by: michael johnson
Michael has traveled and photographed many American states, the Caribbean, Cuba, Mali, and, Thailand. A full time artist since 2001, michael currently splits his time between San Francisco’s vibrant Mission District, and Martha’s Vineyard Island. He has run his eponymously named Michael Johnson Photo Gallery during the summer months for 8 seasons. His photographic works cover a diverse range of subjects and styles, all focusing on the “oneness” of humanity.

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We try to have each salon encompass a diverse range of styles and techniques, and it also gives the photographers of the Vineyard (year-round and summer) a chance to meet, greet and network. Many have only heard of each other, or have only met in passing. This will create a space to strengthen the ties of the Vineyard photographic community.
Each week artists bring projects either in progress or finished projects to discuss; with networking and the camaraderie of people with shared talents. It is our hope that these salons will result in strong presentations, multi-level involvement of the local community, diversity, and the strengthening of the artistic community.

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Previous presenters over the past 10 seasons:

2019
July 9:  Max Skjöldebrand    
July 16:  Jeanna Petersen Shepard
July 23:  David E. Meen
July 30:  Melissa Knowles   
August 6:  Dena Porter

2018
July 10:  Ray Ewing
July 17:  Jeremy Driesen
July 24:  Michael Cohen
July 31:  Gwen Norton    
August 7:  Alison Shaw

2017
July 11:  Monina von Opel and Edward Miller
July 18:  Neal Rantoul
July 25:  Dick Iacovello
August 1:  Stephen Petegorsky
August 8:  Sally Cohn

2016
July 12:  David Welch
July 19:  Stephen DiRado
July 26:  Maria Thibodeau
August 2:  Michael Johnson
August 9:  Peter Dreyer

2015
July 7:  Patrick Cashin
July 14:  Michael Stimola
July 21:  Joanne Frechette
July 28:  Bob Avakian
August 4:  Susan Klein and Alan Brigish

2014
July 8:  Barbara Sandson
July 15:  Ray Ewing
July 22:  Sarah Mayhew
July 29:  Astrid Tilton
August 5:  “Vineyard Colors” Yann Meersseman and Moira Fitzgerald    

2013
July 9:  Jay Seldin
July 16:  Susan Oken
​July 23:  David Welch
July 30:  L.A. Brown    
August 6:  Peter Dreyer

2012
July 10:  Stephen DiRado
July 17:  Jeffrey Serusa
July 24:  Kathy Rose
July 31:  Harvey John Beth
August 8:  Michael Johnson

2011
July 12:  David Welch
July 19:  Rachel Loischild
July 26:  Stephen DiRado
August 2:  Peter Bosco
August 9:  Michael Johnson
August 16:  Jeanne Campbell