self portrait

About Me

Hi, I am Dennis Hilke and this is my website. Some of you may be interested to know a little bit about me; let’s go with this:

After earning a Fine Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point and after enjoying a number of employment experiences, each in some way associated with the arts, I was fortunate to find employment where I worked directly under the tutelage of a master portrait photographer/artist, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  In this position, quickly progressing from an internship to the role of that studio’s primary photographer, I enjoyed the valuable opportunity to exercise and expand my creative abilities.

Later, I focused these skills and experiences gained in my educational and employment backgrounds into the design of my own small business. This business housed an art gallery that promoted the work of local and regional artists.  It offered both fine-portrait photography and photographic copy and restoration services to a number of small communities.  It also enjoyed success at achieving an underlying goal of making meaningful, community-felt contributions.

This website is a continuation of my work at achieving community focused goals.  Having “relatively” recently returned to my home town after living away for most of three decades, this site serves as a platform from which I can provide services to this community and beyond; with a website, community takes on a new meaning with broader scope.

I have left the world of fine-portraiture behind and shifted to capturing images of different subject matter, in essence, the beauty that exists all around us.  It is this beauty of the world around us, and the calling of your attention to it, that this website is dedicated to.  Largely I do this with a camera.  But I see myself as less a photographer than as an artist that makes use of a camera.

I hope you enjoy my website.

Dennis Hilke