Tom will be showing 16×20 prints from his current project; Rural America.
Tom’s work is in the great, classical tradition of American documentary photography, and includes empathetic portraits of everyday people, shop windows and events. A precise, imaginative street photographer, he captures fleeting gestures, chance juxtapositions and special moments between people and their surroundings. His motifs thrive not only on a perfect composition, but also on Arndt’s sense of emotional and psychological depth.
In addition to speakers, we will be reviewing members images after the main presentation:
See bottom of this page to see upcoming meeting presenters and who is sharing their images as well as how to signup to show your images.
New Meeting Days: Third Wednesday of the month from 6:30-9:00pm
Wednesday November 19th, 2025
― Hopkins Center for the Arts ―
― 1111 Mainstreet Hopkins, MN 55343 ―
Map/ Parking and directions
The Ongoing Moment meets on the third Wednesday of the month from 6:30-9:00pm
hosted by Mpls. ― based photographers Richard Ott and Walter Horishnyk
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theongoingmoment
Meetings are free, donations are welcome that goes toward special guest speakers,
snacks and beverages.
Sign up in advance to exhibit your images for a short discussion with the hosts and group attendees
by emailing: walter@horishnyk.com or dickophoto@yahoo.com
The Ongoing Moment is a monthly meeting for PHOTOGRAPHERS / ARTISTS who wish to increase their understanding and improve their practice of their medium. The title refers to the idea that “we share experiences that are formally similar”
We explore past Master photographers and Contemporary photographers, looking at their images and artistic process to help us go forward on our own photographic journey.
Tom Arndt
Born in Minneapolis in 1944, Tom Arndt’s photography belongs to the grand, classic tradition of American documentary photography. Arndt’s work includes sensitive, empathetic portrayals of everyday citizens, in their coffee shops and soda fountains, their streets, their shop windows, their parks, at popular state fairs. Pessimism and pity are out of place. As Arndt’s friend and well known writer Garrison Keillor points out, Tom Arndt photographs the DNA of our culture. A consistently resourceful street photographer, Arndt captures fleeting gestures and momentary juxtapositions between people and their surroundings, finding in them a sense of emotional or psychological depth.
Arndt received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1968) and did graduate study at the University of Minnesota (1969-1971). His photographs have been exhibited at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and other venues. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
He was exposed to photographs by Minor White, Gordon Parks, Esther Bubley, and John Vachon. Robert Frank, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, and Bill Brandt, among many others, also had an impact on the young Arndt. (…) Arndt benefited greatly from the robust development of Mia’s photography collection and exhibition program, directed by the museum’s first Curator of Photographs, Ted Hartwell, whom Arndt met during the second year of his graduate studies. The museum’s strong photographic program blossomed thanks to Hartwell’s ambition, supported by the city’s philanthropic community and initially by the curator’s friendship with John Szarkowski, the director and curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1962 to 1991.
(Originally from Wisconsin, Szarkowski had worked as a staff photographer at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis before joining MoMA.) (…) Szarkowski, who shared with Arndt a passion to make photographs about Minnesota, played an instrumental role in acquiring his work in the early 1980s for the MoMA collection. Arndt’s complex images of Minneapolis often reveal a store window with kaleidoscopic views of the city’s urban and built environments and passersby, including Arndt himself. He also made cars and trucks—an important means of transportation in the everyday life of the state, whether parked or on the urban and suburban streets—a subject of his pictorial observation. Also taken in the city, the photograph titled 4th of July, Minneapolis, 1976 is a different kind of image of the city. There, Arndt photographed three fashionably dressed black youths (sporting Afros, bell-bottom jeans, and platform shoes) seated on the grass, relaxing while they wait for the Fourth of July celebrations in Powderhorn Park in southern Minneapolis. Arndt grew up in this area and he frequented the park—which is also within a mile of George Floyd Square—and knew the neighborhood well. (…) Most of those he photographed were aware of him and he often engaged in conversation with them. For Arndt it is important that the people he photographs feel comfortable, an outlook that tends to produce intimacy between him and his subjects. (…) Thirty-six years later, in the spring and summer of 2020, Arndt traced the devastation of Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd on May 27, 2020, in southern Minneapolis, a neighborhood the photographer grew up in and knew well. (…)
(Yasufumi Nakamori Extracts from “Tom Arndt and Minneapolis”, published in Tom Arndt: American Reflections, Atelier EXB, 2O22)
We will also be giving away copies of SHOTS magazines
courtesy of Elizabeth Flinsch I Editor of Shots.
Elizabeth Flinsch will be speaking to us about her images as well as the magazine some time in the near future.
Book Giveaway:
Home: Tom Arndt’s Minnesota
by Tom Arndt (Author), George Slade (Introduction), Garrison Keillor (Foreword)
A visual tribute to the people of Minnesota from a renowned photographer
For forty years, acclaimed photographer and native Minnesotan Tom Arndt has been documenting the faces of Minnesota with unparalleled skill and candor. In Home, Arndt presents what he calls “a poem to my home state” through a series of poignant and compelling photographs that highlight the unique character of Minnesota.From Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis to Main Street in Willmar, from carnival workers at the state fair to drag racing fans in Anoka, and from small-town street dances to the Aquatennial torchlight parade, Home captures everyday life in the North Star State. By allowing people’s lives to speak for themselves, Arndt’s photographs reveal the often forgotten moments that build common bridges across a diverse and ever-changing state.Enriched with more than 100 photographs, along with a personal and insightful preface by the author and a foreword by Garrison Keillor, Home is a landmark testimony to the people and culture of Minnesota. Arndt approaches his subjects—he would call them neighbors—with honesty, empathy, and humanity, and what emerges is a portrait of Minnesota that is at once achingly familiar and surprisingly new.
Members sharing images this month:
You are encouraged to bring prints of your current or past work to share with the group, where you can ask for comments or reviews. We are a safe place to help you grow as artists and encourage creative exploration of all kinds. Please email us before the meetings with how many images you will share and tell us if you will be presenting digital or prints. If digital, bring images on a USB drive with only your images on it. All presenters will need to come 30 minutes before the meeting for preparation time.
email to: walter@horishnyk.com or dickophoto@yahoo.com,
We will post your request below to your chosen month, Thanks
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 ― Tom Arndt will be showing his work and reviewing members images after his presentation.
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 ― Michael Matherne will show work.
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 ― Richard Hudson will show work.
Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 ― Jeffrey Kraker: I would like to bring some of my images to show at the October meeting. I am working on a project to document Quincy Ave in NE before the street is torn up by the city and would like to turn that into a book.
I could use some feedback on what I have already and any areas that may need more coverage.
Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 ― Joanne Thompson:
She will show family photos as photographic subjects. We will have a discussion about using family for our story telling.
Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 ― Keith Miesel; will bring Joseph Kirkish images and talk about Joseph’s career
(Joseph just had his 100th birthday)
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 ― Walter and Richard will be showing their work
Monday, October 21st, 2024,: Main Topic/Presenter : Xavier Tavera Castro
Reviewing images of: Peter Boulay and Dan Tran
Monday, November 18th, 2024: Main Topic/Presenter : Steve Ozone
Reviewing images of: Dave Heinz and Julian
Monday, December 16th, 2024: Main Topic/Presenter : Nicole Houff
Reviewing images of: Dave Heinz
Monday, January 20th,2025: An in depth review of Richard Avedon (1923-2004)
Monday, February 17th,2025: Images by Howard M. Christopherson
Monday, March 17th, 2025: Mark Peterson & Collages made by meeting participants
Monday, April 21st, 2025: Regina M Flanagan will be showing her recent environmental portrait series about the participants in Rural Urban FLOW
Monday, May 19th ― Presenter: Carl Corey will show images and talk about his photography process. Monday, June 16th ― Brett Kallusky will present his work and insight about being a photographer and photography educator.
English