ABOUT THIS BOOK

In his follow-up to Tavern League: Portraits of Wisconsin Bars, Carl Corey turns his camera on Wisconsin family-owned businesses in existence fifty years or longer. The businesses portrayed here—bakeries and barbecue joints, funeral homes and furniture builders, cheesemakers, fishermen, ferry boat drivers—have survived against all the odds, weathering tough economic times and big-business competition. The owners are loyal to their employees, their families, and themselves. And they are integral to their local economies and social fabric. The services and goods they provide are usually for neighbors and friends. Generations serve generations, creating lasting relationships and strong, vibrant neighborhoods and rural communities. In For Love and Money, Carl Corey provides indelible glimpses of an increasingly endangered way of life. The Museum of Wisconsin Art’s Graham Reid has said, “As current and future generations come and go, these pictures will survive in the hands of the subjects, collectors, museums, and galleries. Will the businesses featured enjoy a similar longevity? Only time will tell, and we can only watch and hope, but Carl Corey has ensured that they will not be forgotten.”

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Carl Corey has been interested in photography since he was a kid and majored in the subject during his high school days in Chicago. He has worked as an advertising still photographer and director and cameraman for advertising projects in Chicago and Los Angeles. He retired from the advertising business and moved back to Wisconsin after twenty-five years to focus on his roots: documentary photography.
Carl Corey’s work is exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, as well in numerous private and public collections. Corey has won more than 100 photography awards from such groups and publications as the New York Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, Bessies, Addys, and Gold Lions. He is the author/photographer of Tavern League: Portraits of Wisconsin Bars.

REVIEWS

“Simply put, Carl Corey takes important pictures. Despite having required less than a second to create, within their stolid, quiet compositions they encapsulate decades, as well as factors not so readily apparent: loyalty, honor, trust, commitment, faith, and pride. . . . While these are Wisconsin pictures, they are equally American pictures. For viewers of this book, the familiarity of a local business—maybe even one within their own family—will strike a chord, prompting reflection, appreciation, or perhaps a sense of wistful loss over what has been slowly vanishing from the fabric of American commercial life.”(Graham Reid, Museum of Wisconsin Art)

“The phrase ‘we’re in this together’ takes on a whole different light when we see Carl Corey’s images of a father shoulder-to-shoulder with a son, a wife shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, or a logger shoulder-to-shoulder with his horses. There is a patience to these photos born of people who know what it is to make something for the customer and then wait for the customer. To simply stand there with your wheels of cheese, saying, This is what we make, this is what we sell. If you want some, we have some. Fear, hope, determination, whatever you see in Carl Corey’s portraits, I would argue there is one other character strain evident throughout For Love and Money, and it has to do with low-key stubborn cussedness. Sometimes triumph of the human spirit is best expressed not by brassy fanfare but rather by heels dug in the ground.” (Michael Perry, author of Truck: A Love Story and Visiting Tom )

"An unforgettable glimpse of the heart and soul of entrepreneurs who persevere against economic hardship and tough competition, For Love and Money is a treasury. Highly recommended." ( James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

For Love and Money

Index