December 14, 2025
Conrad Jay (CJ) Pressma, son of Boris and Naomi Pressma (nee Schneider), passed away on December 14, 2025. He was born on February 17, 1944, in Louisville, Kentucky. As a lifelong resident of Louisville his family served as leaders of the Jewish Community and helped build the Jewish Community Center of Louisville. Pressma was a noted artist, art educator, and leader within the local arts community and a founding member of Pyro Gallery. He has served as a board member at various Louisville arts institutions, including Louisville Visual Art and Louisville Photo Biennial.
Pressma was a graduate of Antioch College and received an M.F.A. in Photography from Indiana University. He studied as a special graduate student with Minor White at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and with Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University.
In 1970, he founded the Center for Photographic Studies. During its eight-year existence, The Center provided an alternative learning experience for students from across the nation seeking to explore photography as creative expression. The Center made an enduring impact on the photographic arts through its collaborative arts and lecture series at the Speed Museum and its program for publishing original works by prominent photographic artists such as Henry Holmes Smith and Ralph Eugene Meatyard.
Pressma received numerous national and local awards for his work over his celebrated career. In 1978, he was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in photography in recognition of his artistic achievement in visual arts. He also received several national awards for excellence and innovation in documentary production for his seven-part multimedia documentary Witness to the Holocaust (released in 1984). Witness to the Holocaust is one of the first productions to use survivor interviews as the exclusive content to tell the story of the Holocaust. In 1997, he won the Silver Medal Award, a top industry honor, from the American Advertising Federation. In 2001, he received an AI Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, recognizing artistic excellence and contribution to the arts in Kentucky. In 2001, Pressma was selected as one of 84 artists worldwide for the landmark exhibition Digital Printmaking Now at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and is included in the public collections of several museums, including the Speed Art Museum. In 2024, he was honored by The Louisville Visual Art organization with a Legacy Award for his longstanding influence on the visual arts community.
CJ is survived by his wife of 48 years, Marcelle Gianelloni, his two daughters, Michelle Pressma (Steve Rackett) and Elise Pressma (Scott Lasensky), and five grandsons, Jacob and Eli Grassi, Alex, Evan, and Gabriel Lasensky, as well as his sister, Diane Gordon. He is also survived by Yarima Hernandez and Karel Fernandez and their son, Ethan. He was predeceased by his brother, Stuart Pressma.
CJ lived with diabetes from childhood and faced his life and illness with equal measures of tenacity, courage, and competence. The family is so grateful to many loving caregivers, including Cal, Andrea, Hailey, Savannah, and Teresa, as well as others who have guided the family over the years.
The family will be gathering privately and would be honored if contributions were made in CJ Pressma’s memory to the following: the Trager Family Jewish Community Center of Louisville and Hosparus Health.
7 Condolences
Our deepest sympathy on the loss of CJ, a talented and devoted family member. May his memory always be a blessing.
Much love to all. Cj and the Center for Photographic Studies were important early influences in my creative life. One of the best days of my life was a trip to Cincy with Cj and the CPS Krewe to see Harry Callahan and other luminaries including my fist visit to Izzy’s original deli. Sweet memories of a deep and gracious teacher and friend.
We’re so sad to hear of CJ’s passing. What a kind and talented man. May he rest in peace. Our love and condolences go out to the entire family.
All of us at PYRO Gallery are so glad that CJ founded this co-op and was such a strong presence over more than 20 years. His photography was always powerful, finding the humanity in all his subjects and the beauty in even the most abject or bleak of surroundings. We’re so glad that his last show will go on at PYRO in March. We will miss him greatly as a fellow artist and fast friend.
I’ve known C.j. for many many years. I was among the second group of people to join Pyro Gallery and CJ and I been close friends since then. We both took pride in and laughed about our ability to disagree with one another with no effect on our friendship. He will be a great loss to the community and a great loss to me personally – it will be a duller world without him.
One of Louisville’s great artists. CJ’s creativity and leadership was such an asset and will be missed.
It is with sadness to have learned that this kind, gentle , generous man has passed. I hope that his family and friends take comfort as he lives on through his works.
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