Ideas - Richard Ross

Ideas - Richard Ross
By: Kathryn Fiorita

Richard Ross is an American documentary photographer known for his work called the Juvenile in Justice. He has a lot of reviews, publications and press about this project from PBS, CNN, TIMES and many more. His work is often shown with another photographer of the juvenile justice system, Zora Murff.

This project documented the U.S. juvenile justice system for eight years. Juvenile In Justice is a project to document the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them.” Juvenile in Justice documented teenages for eight years. On Ross’ website each photo has a small description about what the photo is about or who is in the photo.

His latest project, Girls in Justice, focuses on girls in the juvenile detention and treatment in the U.S. The much-anticipated follow up to his first project, turns our focus to girls in the system, and not a moment too soon.

He did this project to bring awareness to what is happening.  He is the voice for these teenage girls. They are getting abuse by the people that should be parenting them. These teenagers do not have anyone to speak for them. All of these girls are sexually abused. These girls are being put into bad placements,  may be abusive or not they don’t know until they are living there. Most of these young women go to the detention center for safety to avoid further abuse. There aren’t any facilities for these girls outside of the detention center, to help them after they get out. And most of these detention centers are run by males that have not dealt with children before or are run by ex-military and not prepared. They are not prepared for the needs of children and really not prepared to care for these girls.

UWM Special Collections
Artist Book Collection
By: Kathryn Fiorita 

At UW-Milwaukee's library, Special Collections is the university's collection of rare books and special printed materials. The collections is open to the public. The collections supports a large range of research and teaching activities in the arts, social science and many others.  As a  class, we went to view photography books chosen by Librarian, Max Yela.

The first book that I looked at was Life’s a beach by Martin Parr. This book is photographs of beach life over many decades, documenting all aspects of those ritual leisure activities: close up of people sun bathing and people swimming. Some of the moment that he captured are snapshot of people just doing their things at the beach. Parr documented people in the UK to China, Argentina and Thailand.

Other book was interesting was Jess T. Dugan’s Every Breath We Drew. This book examines the power of identity, desire, and connection through the art of  portraiture.

Artist Talk - Kevin Miyazaki

Kevin Miyazaki
Photographer
By: Kathryn Fiorita

Wednesday night at UWM the lecture series, Artist Now, presents a diverse group of artist. The series is both class and designed for a large audience with an interest in a range of contemporary visual art. Recently Kevin Miyazaki, a talented photographer spoke.

Miyazaki started his career as a photojournalist and sports photographer, expanding his interests to explore architecture, portraits, fashion and food. He had been a freelance photographer for 12 years now, working in exotic locations for magazines, which compensates for low pay.

The project that I was drawn to the most was his project Fast Food.  This project is tracking the visual imprint made by the American fast food restaurant on our cultural and visual landscape.  I am very interested in this project because how he is capturing out of business venues these images.

UWM Special Collections - Photo Book Collection

UWM Special Collections
Photo books
By: Raven Mrozek

UWM has an outstanding special collections resource on campus open to the public. This resource contains thousands of artist books, printed materials, and rare book collections. The range of materials the public has access to is greater than I was aware of. Max Yela and the team in Special Collections can aide in a broad range of research so it is a tool that I will look more into utilizing in my educational  and artistic future. 

After looking through the dozens of books Max Yela pulled for the class to look through, tableau photographer Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison and the collaborators' book The Architect's Brother caught my attention. Their work had an unusually haunting but stunning aesthetic that was very metaphorical and fantastical. After researching ParkeHarrison, I was amazed that they used a technique that was adapted from a type of negative process where they had the ability to combine multiple images into one image.  This process is one I am interested in researching and the hauntingly beautiful way they metaphorically expresses their concept is one I would like to use as an inspiration for future works of mine.

Ideas- Phenomenon- Susan Worsham

Susan Worsham 
By: Raven Mrozek

Susan Worsham, born in Richmond, Virginia, is considered to be a recent emerging artist. She took her first photography class in college while she was studying graphic design. Her work is both metaphorical and aesthetically soft and stunning. I am in love with her interpretation on memory and how she combines both beauty and loss together into a single image.  



Bittersweet on Bostwick Lane is Susan Worsham's series that most directly speaks to this idea of both the beauty and loss in a memory. Worsham discussed in her artist statement how she has lost bother of her parents, however the suicide of her brother is what makes its way into her works and shapes the way she photographs. I noticed she incorporated honeysuckle, stains, and red in a lot of images metaphorically tying together the loss and the beauty. Worsham shared the first line of her brothers suicide letter which said "I arrived home just about the time the honeysuckle blooms" which made me as a viewer create a connection with the use of the honeysuckle. She expressed how beautiful yet sad it was that her brother took in the beauty of his surroundings knowing it would be his last time. This loss and attention to beauty seeped into this series Bittersweet on Bostwick Lane. The sweet memories Worsham incorporated in the series were buttering her brother's bread growing up, homemade strawberry jelly, the intangible landscape, and sweet flowers. There is a sense of poetry in how she photographs.






By The Grace of God is another beautiful series of Susan Worsham that I enjoy. The title of this series comes from the old saying "American by birth, southern but the grace of god." Her series explores her past home from the neighbor yards to the hospitality of the surrounding peoples, and the character strangers had in welcoming her into their home and telling their story. 

Event Review - Kevin Miyazaki - Artist Now! lecture

Kevin Miyazaki
Event Review
Raven Mrozek

Kevin Miyazaki's artist lecture was not only interesting and thought provoking as far as subject matter and concept, but it also was very beneficial in regards to his discussion on commercial photography. He spoke on where his photography began and how it grew commercially. He began as a simple newspaper photographer creating documentary photographs that were mass spread. From here he landed jobs with the Cincinnati Magazine as well as the Milwaukee Magazine. The calm aesthetic in his images aid him in his freelance commercial photography, having taken many portrait and many portraits of artists. 
 
Kevin Miyazaki's discussion on commerce showed me that it is possible to go anywhere with your photography, and sometimes the best place to start is small at a local paper. From there you can create your own archive of public images tracing back to you allowing your photography to grow in the commerce element of art; it can even take you to other countries. Kevin Miyazaki's statement on how when photographing in other countries, a smile is the most universal language stood out to me. My mom always told me this same thing when growing up and I feel it is important understand this especially when photographing where people may not speak the same verbal language as you.

Aside from commerce, there is art. I resonated most with Kevin Miyazaki's photography discussing his family history. He utilizes family images his works as well as uses his family history to drive his concepts. Intertwining re purposed images and stories from his family's past is something I am currently working on in my photo project on family memory.

Ideas - Chris McCaw

Chris McCaw
Photographer
By: Kylee Diedrich


Chris McCaw is a contemporary photographer who has been working with the medium starting at the age of 13.  He taught himself photography with fisheye lenses and film in the 80s.  In the 90s McCaw bought a 4"x5" camera to begin working with platinum/palladium printing processes, he used other with larger format cameras as well.  He has since worked with other analog techniques and explores extreme possibilities of the medium. 

The project I find most interesting is his project Sunburn where he explores the limitations of film.  This is what McCaw states about his process: 

In this process the sun burns its path onto the light sensitive negative. After hours of exposure, the sky, as a result of the extremely intense light exposure, reacts in an effect called solarization- a natural reversal of tonality through over exposure. The resulting negative literally has a burnt hole in it with the landscape in complete reversal. The subject of the photograph (the sun) has transcended the idea that a photograph is simple a representation of reality,  and has physically come through the lens and put it’s hand onto the final piece. This is aprocess of creation and destruction, all happening within the the camera.

McCaw makes contemporary photography, but addresses the history of the medium throughout his process.  He learns more about his method of making as years go on and learns from military aerial reconnaissance camera optics and the history of photo papers.  McCaw discusses the love for his process as such:

 This project has got my mind working overtime and has rejuvenated my faith in analog photography. My favorite part is watching smoke come out of the camera during the exposure and the faint smell of roasted marshmallows as the gelatin cooks!

When relating McCaw's work with my own, I find the art of photography fascinating.  The functions of the camera, and how hands-on the whole process can be.  I also enjoy the uncertainty in the process of analog and love many the possibilities with photography. 

Artist Talk - Kevin Miyazaki

Kevin Miyazaki
Photographer
By: Kylee Diedrich

Recently Kevin Miyazaki spoke to students, faculty, and friends of UWM at the Artist Now! lecture series. Miyazaki discussed his fine art and commerce work from his beginnings to his current work.  I found the way he talked about his work to be inspiring.  His vision is extremenly refined and without the drama that young artists grapple with as they are learning.  Miyazaki is a talented photographer, with a lifetime of knowledge in the medium of photography.

The project I was drawn to the most was his project Perimeter.  I found the project particularly interesting because it loosely relates to my own senior thesis project.  He drove the scenic route around Lake Michigan photographing the people along the shores, as well as an image of the lake that day.  His approach is more narrow than my own concept, but I find his work to be one inspiration for where I could take my project in the coming years.  His photographs are beautifully quiet and thought provoking as they take the viewer along the shores of Lake Michigan.

Though Miyazaki's project was the result of a commission, I chose my senior thesis based on the connection I have to the lakes, and what I find so interesting about them.  Miyazaki's project shows the variety and connectedness between the populations and people who live and depend on the fresh water of Lake Michigan.  The images share the variety in the lake, as well as the variety of people who utilize it daily.  I look up to Kevin Miyazaki and use him as inspiration for my future as a graduating senior. 

Field Trip - Special Collections UWM Libraries

UWM Special Collections
Artist Book Collection

by: Kylee Diedrich

Wednesday, March 8, as a class we visited the Special Collections at the UWM Library.  I have visited the area many times before, for work related events and also class events.  I find the Special Collections to be full of great resources and objects to help students learn and explore possibilities in many realms of study. Librarian Max Yela placed numerous photographic artist's books out for us all to view.  Some were unique hand-made artist's books, while many were trade publications.

The books I found most interesting and I engaged with most were the artist-made books that showed the artist's hand in some way.  They were unique and visually appealing, giving a unique views on someone's idea of a book. Nothing is wrong with printed books from a commercial publisher, I just found myself drawn to the special and unique books.

While talking with Max Yela more individually he brought out more artist books for me to look at. He also helped me decide a possible direction for my own artist book for my senior thesis project.  I have been trying to decide a direction to go and visiting the Special Collection and talking with Max I was able to decide on a medium and style.

These artist books were among the ones Max brought out to me that influence my decision to build my own  artist's book.  To create something by hand, and create a physical object that is not reproducible. 

Max also pointed out an artist book (one of many copies) made by one of my professors Nicolas Lampert. I found his style to be interesting and inspired me to think more about how I would incorporate my images in the book as well as binding techniques. 

While viewing the other books, I found page numbering, text, poems, and sound to be interesting approaches to creating a book.  I decided on a style I liked in terms of image, text, and page number placements that can add to what my project is trying to address. This visit made me more excited about my own book making and I look forward to what might transpire in the next half of the semester. 

Field Trip - Milwaukee Art Museum Herzfeld Center

Milwaukee Art Museum
Herzfeld Center

by: Kylee Diedrich

On Wednesday, March 1st my photography class visited the Herzfeld Center at the Milwaukee Art Museum to view contemporary photography in an informal setting. The majority of the images were without frames or glass, directly from the storage files. We were able to be inches away from the museum's worthy collection. Our instructor and the Collections Manager chose images that were either historically important or cutting edge. Not often do students or the public get the chance to view work in such an intimate way.

The trip exposed us all to contemporary photographs and photographers who are working with new techniques or old techniques in a new manner.  We saw twenty-five images close up.  Some that I found most interesting were Robert Heinecken's A Case Study in Finding an Appropriate TV Newswoman, 1984 (Top Left); Marco Breuer's Untitled (C-784), 2008 (Top Right) ; and Christopher Russell's Explosion #26, 2014 (Bottom).

                                

                

Overall, the field trip to the Herzfeld Center to be a great way to expose us to the new ideas revolving around contemporary photography and the ways artists are developing the medium of photography, what it means, and what it can be in the future.  

Artist Visit - Barbara Miner

Barbara Miner
Photographer & Journalist

By: Kylee Diedrich

On February 20, Barbara Miner visited our class and discussed her work as a Photojournalist.  She went over her years as a photographer with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as well as the projects that she has completed most recently.  What I found amazing listening to her, was her approach to the medium.  She seems to always have a journalistic eye when she is photographing her subjects.  From her  53206MKE project to her Cuba project, she always found ways to use the camera to capture the subject, not just to capture it, but to start a discussion.  Each image she takes comes with a story, sometimes a story only she knows.

The project I felt most inspired by was the book she produced with her partner when they were at the Standing Rock Camp. The images spoke about an injustice many media news outlets were not and have not discussed. The images offer a view into the battles indigenous people's are having to fight, all because of greedy oil companies and politicians who have zero regard for indigenous rights. Miner's website does not show any of her Standing Rock photographs, but they live on in my memory. The signs posted around the camp, the many depictions of native culture and the sense of community within the photographs were inspiring. Miner brings people who could not stand with Standing Rock at the camp a way to be visually engaged and aware of the injustice.

I find Miner's work to be interactive. In her project Anatomy of an Avenue, she truly takes the viewer from the East Side of Milwaukee on a trip into the western suburbs beyond the city.  Block after block, she photographs what she sees, the people she interacts with and changes people often chose to ignore.  Her project shows a variety of social divisions over the entire stretch of the avenue across a city.

I encourage everyone to view Barbara Miner's work about Milwaukee, her photographs truly celebrate as they document the communities within Milwaukee. I am thankful for Miner's visit to class, and enjoyed hearing her talk about her process, photographic career and her inspirations as she moves forward in making new work. 

Report - Artist Now! Talk- Kevin Miyazaki

Artists Now! Guest Lecture Series: Kevin Miyazaki

March 8 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

By Rebeka Schmieder

Kevin Miyazaki is a masterful photographer who captures precise images that feel crisp and vivid. He has traveled to different places around the world doing commercial work, including food photography, portraiture, travel, landscape, but he never puts limits on his assignments. His close attention to the composition and his technical skill make his work popular and he has garnered a wide audience. 

Miyazaki began his career as a photojournalist for newspapers/magazines. He mentioned in his lecture that  he liked being "in the front row of people's lives." Photojournalism provided this for him. He also liked that in this type of photography he had no control over the subjects or actions in the images. At this point in his career he considered himself a  documentary photographer. I have found that many photographers chose this style because it lets the artist be an observer, but not the controller. I appreciate this in my own work as well. I chose to not be the "instigator" of a photograph. 

Miyazaki continued to create photos for Milwaukee magazine. He did more freelance work and commercial photography work for magazines like Readers Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, etc. Much of his commercial work is environmental portraiture. More recently he has made more studio based portrait photographs. 

Miyazaki showed much travel photography. This work gives him the chance to enjoy different cultures and see different landscapes. I found work quite beautiful. Most of the photos have a quite/peaceful tone to them. I appreciate that when he goes to different cities, he does not focus on one aspect of a place like some photographers who seem to trap themselves into one view of a place. This is because they are an outsider and they forget to let themselves understand a new place. Miyazaki puts the viewer into the location he is shooting in. 

I enjoyed Miyazaki's most recent work, Perimeter. I saw a small part of this series while in Port Washington at the 221 Gallery. What I find most interesting about the photos is the process used in taking the photos. He traveled along Lake Michigan taking family and individual portraits, creating a survey of the variety of residents and visitors. The portraits used a black backdrop with simple diffused light. Miyazaki created a transportable mini-studio for this project. I thought it was a crafty way to make these perfectly lit portraits. Perimeter  was displayed at the Haggerty Museum at Marquette University. This display was beautifully composed and displayed the 2 parts of the series, the lake and the people. 

Perimeter at the Haggerty Museum

Kevin Miyazaki found his niche in photography long time ago and has stuck with it since. His craft is impeccable and methodical. I could look at his photographs all day. 

Report - Artist Talk - Kayla Massey

Artist Talk - Kayla Massey 
by Lainey Koch 

Kayla Massey's artist talk (presented by Focus Photography Club) was a great way to further my understanding of this graduate student and instructor's thesis project. Her work has a strong focus on the personal and it's intersection with the political. At the age of 21, Massey was diagnosed with a serious illness that required a lengthy hospitalization. She used her time  to create a series about the "unspoken nature of death in the United States".

The work she is making as a graduate student uses the wet plate collodion process to create portraits of women. The conceptual focus on this work is based in sexual assault, and how survivors face erasure in the media and their daily lives. All of her subjects are covered in flour, and photographed in a studio setting.  These portraits are then enlarged onto a bronze mirror utilizing the wet plate collodion process. A total of over fifty photographs will be produced for her final exhibition.

Massey's work explores themes that I am also interested in and I was inspired to see such an unique use of a historical process involved with her concept. To see the process of conceptual development she followed was an inspiring look into an artist's process.

Landscape - Penelope Umbrico

Landscape: Penelope Umbrico
By Deshawn Brown

Penelope Umbrico is an artist / photographer known for appropriating images found using search engines and picture sharing websites. Her work has been published in books, exhibited and she has received awards. She was born in Philadelphia in 1957 and graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She received her MFA from the School of Visual Art and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Currently, she is a faculty member in the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, video, and related Media Program and resides in New York City. Her work is in collections including International Center of Photography (NY), McNay Museum of Art (TX), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Museum of Contemporary Photography (IL), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (CA), Museum of Modern Art (NY).

I feel her work,  is very simple. She doesn’t do anything on her own but search images on google, yahoo, etc. She then combines these images together into one whole rectangular collage. I understand that she wants to show the audience about how we  use the internet to consume and create materials over a period of time,but I wish there was a better outlook about the way they were captured.