- Michael W. Lemberger (1941-2016) was an award-winning photographer and artist.
- During his photographic career, he won more than 100 national, regional, and state awards for excellence in news, feature and portrait photography. More than 25,000 of his photographs were published in newspapers and magazines around the world.
- He was chief photographer for The Ottumwa Courier, a daily newspaper, for seventeen years, and freelanced as a news photographer for national news networks and for newspapers and television stations across a three-state region. He was trained in aerial photography in the United State Air Force. He was the first photographer to have motion picture film admitted as evidence in district court in Iowa, and was considered an expert witness in the photographic field.
- His pen-and-ink drawings are intricate and highly detailed, created in a pointillist technique. His first limited edition print, of a scene in the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Japanese garden, was released in 1992 in Toronto, Canada. Seven additional limited editions have subsequently been released.
- A noted public speaker and teacher, he taught photography at the University of Iowa’s Summer Writing Festival and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as at the community college level.
- He was a member of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).
- Mr. Lemberger’s photographic collection, including his own work and the historic images he archived and preserved, has been donated to the University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections Department.