Michael J. Godsil was born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois, USA, and is a graduate of Knox College. He is in his 37th year of teaching creative photography in the studio art program and is currently holds the title of Associate Professor of Art at Knox College.  He teaches courses in digital photography, as well as courses in traditional, analog, Black & White film photography, where students learn how to develop and print their negatives in a traditional chemical darkroom.  

 

Godsil’s personal, creative photography is primarily of landscapes, nature details, abstractions, and architectural subjects. In addition to using current digital camera equipment, Godsil still occasionally uses a large format, 4" x 5" field camera, or a medium format camera with traditional, analog, black & white film and chemical darkroom processes.  He has been pursuing his personal fine-art photography continuously over the past 50 years.

 

Past self-assigned creative photography projects have involved multiple trips to the American Desert Southwest to photograph ancient, isolated Native American ruins sites, and a trip to Peru to photograph Inca ruins sites, including Machu Picchu.  An ongoing, self-assigned, creative photography project, spanning more than 30 years at this point, involves photographing receding glaciers and icebergs in multiple locations around the globe; including Alaska, the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Greenland, Iceland, and New Zealand. Those images comprise an exhibition titled “Hot Ice”, first exhibited in the summer of 2020, and are scheduled for a solo exhibition in the fall of 2021.

 

Godsil has previously served as the judge for several photography exhibitions in the past, as well as for an art exhibition of works by artists working  in multiple art mediums.