Artist Now! - Kevin Miyazaki

Kevin Miyazaki

Hayley Ishihara

Kevin Miyazaki is a Milwaukee based photography who's work revolves around issues of family, memory, history and space. While attending Drake University in Iowa, his father was worried about his future with a photography degree so he graduated in 1990 with a bachelors degree in graphic design. However, to this day he has never used his graphic design skills. 

When Miyazaki was first starting out, he began as a photojournalist taking portraits for business men and women. After the portraits, he spent time working with food photography as well as shooting the chefs who made the food. He has also traveled to 20 countries and  many states taking landscapes photos for travel companies. 

After a slow beginning in the art world, Miyazaki embarked on a few projects revolving around his family and his Japanese heritage. In the project Camp Home, the photos are all documentations of how the buildings of Tule Lake and Heart Mountain are being repurposed. Those buildings are where his ancestors and many other Japanese families were held during World War II. 



Another project, Yonsei, was an artist book Miyazaki created from his first trip to Japan with his sister and mother. While there, they met other family members and visited the places their ancestors lived before immigrating to Hawaii and Washington. 



Another project that I particularly enjoyed was Perimeter, this project was commissioned by the Haggerty Museum at Marquette University. Miyazaki was commissioned to take a two week trip around Lake Michigan and took portraits of the people that represented the world around Lake Michigan.