Throughout his thirty-five year career as a newspaper photojournalist and videographer (The Miami Newsin Florida, the Troy Daily News and the Dayton Daily News), thousands of Jim’s images were published in the U.S. and worldwide, including in Time and Life magazines, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, United Press International, and the Associated Press worldwide. Jim was named the Ohio Photographer of the Year (ONPA) five times, and the Regional Photographer of the Year (NPPA Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana) three times.

Jim’s fine art photography paralleled his journalism work, and he was experimenting with technique all his life. He leaves behind a vast collection of photos that illustrate the glory days of darkroom photography and its transition into digital forms. His last works are striking, focused studies of nature made on a flatbed scanner next to his computer, with no traditional camera in sight.

Jim Witmer’s retrospective provides an overview of the many facets of his work; seen as never before in the connected galleries of the Hayner Cultural Center. View not only a sampling of his photography as published in books, magazines, and newspapers, but also his experimental fine art images and collection of antique cameras and photo equipment. Witmer’s career spans an era of rapid technological advances, revealing an artist with a holistic worldview and uniquely broad range of ability.