A new exhibit opened at Wells Library featuring the works of photographer Carl David Repp, a graduate of Depauw University and IU, whose archived showcase displays a portrait of Bloomington and the Midwest encapsulated within the frames of his black-and-white photography.
The exhibit runs from June 28 to Oct. 7, in remembrance of Repp and his work.
A long-time Bloomington resident, Repp’s photography on display ranges decades of work, with photographs covering subjects of nature, jazz, politics, auto-racing, Bobby Knight and canoeing. One of his most famous pictures has Coach Bobby Knight hurling a chair across the court at Assembly Hall.
“(Repp) will be forever part of the photojournalism community that passed through Bloomington,” said J. Bruce Baumann, photojournalist, editor and member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.
Repp was born in Huntington, Indiana, where he delivered groceries at his family grocery. He graduated from DePauw in 1959 with a degree in English Literature.
Afterward, he enrolled at IU, until a brief stint in the U.S. Army forced him to leave, only for him to return once again to earned his master’s degree in Audio-Visual Education in 1966. While in school, he worked at IU’s Audio-Visual Center as a photographer.
Sam Riche, photographer for the Indianapolis Star, gave some insight onto Repp as an undergraduate, which was printed on a plaque in the exhibit.
“As a freshman at IU, I devised a ‘special formula’ ... for exposing and processing the tri-x,” Riche said. “I showed Repp the resulting prints. After he examined them for an extended period of time, I could tell he was impressed! Then he looked me straight in the eye with that serious look and said ‘don’t tell anybody else’ ... and we literally never spoke of it again!”
After his master’s, Repp worked briefly as the Chief Photographer at Northern Illinois University. In 1968, he moved onto free-lance photography, to which he would remain doing for the rest of his life, returning occasionally to IU’s School of Journalism to lecture.
Repp’s work has been featured in publications such as TIME, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times and the Washington Post.
His photos in the archive illustrate a Bloomington of yesteryear: a nude woman diving into the quarry in 1975, a political demonstration at Showalter Fountain with a man holding a sign that reads “Joylessness,” a line of bikers riding toward the sun in preparation for Little 500 in 1969. Also included are a number of photos of Repp canoeing around areas like Lake Monroe and Patoka River.
“He would rather have died while on a wilderness canoe trip in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota,” said longtime friend and colleague James W. Brown, retired executive associate dean of the IU journalism school on the IUPUI campus, according to the exhibit.
Repp’s reputation for his love of jazz music shows in a portrait taken of former Jacobs School of Music professor David Baker, who passed away this past March, from 1981.
“Dave’s door was always open for coffee and conversation always with the background of classical music or jazz,” Brown said. “Students who got a dose of Dave’s intellect and critical review of their photographs accelerated their learning far beyond what they were learning in the classroom. Those who came back for more soon had a loyal and lifelong friend.”
Repp died April 29, 2013, in Chico, California, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
“I asked him how he was doing,” Baumann said, according to the exhibit. “And he said, ‘You know, I have Alzheimer’s disease.’ I told him he’d be OK. He thanked me. I told him, ‘No, I’m the one who needs to thank you.’”
The exhibit is on the fourth floor of the Wells Library in the IU Archives and will be on display weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
