KAUKAUNA — In his day job, John Brogan is the CEO of the Bank of Kaukauna.
But he helps feeds his artistic side photographing the people he has come to know in the community.
An exhibition of Brogan’s portraits opens Saturday at the Vaudette on Kaukauna’s southside.
Brogan, who grew up here and went to high school in Kaukauna and Appleton, went to college and earned his law degree at the University of Iowa.
He practiced law in the Twin Cities before moving home in 2011 to work at the bank, which his family has been involved with since 1973.
Photography, and the arts in general, have long been a passion for Brogan.
“My interest is really more about people, trying to capture some essential aspect of the subject’s personality at a particular moment in time,” Brogan said in an email interview.
“All of my shots are impromptu,” Brogan said. “I’m less worried about technical perfection than I am in a photo that tells a good story.”
Brogan’s oversize black and white prints express an intimate familiarity with both his subjects and the environment around them.
He prefers to take photographs of people that he knows well or comes in contact with regularly, since it is easier to gauge if he’s successfully expressed the person in the shot, Brogan said.
As CEO, Brogan has acquired an impressive collection of art that adorns the walls of the Bank of Kaukauna.
“I view creativity and art and supporting the arts as central to the attraction of talent in our community,” Brogan said in an interview earlier this year with Insight on Business.
Brogan also is on the Trout Museum of Art board and works with Imagine Fox Cities.
An opening reception will be at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16 at the Vaudette, 151 E 2nd St, Kaukauna.
