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.
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