Joseph Mougel: Artist Now Lecture Series

by Steffen Francisco

Joseph Mougel, in addition to being the photography department director at UW-Milwaukee, was also a featured speaker at the Artists Now! Lecture series on campus.  His background in photography stems from his time in the Marine Corps and continues in his personal practice and educational role today.

Joseph is an artist that blurs and crosses lines between mediums and styles.  While he is considered by most as a photographer, much of his work crosses into video, installation and performance art.  In many cases presented during his talk, it seemed as though the photography was more of a documentation method than an integral portion of the work itself. 

The main standout of his talk was the his Blanc series.  As a veteran myself, the ideas that spawned this series are familiar and of interest to me.  Though there are many parts of my service that have blurred into a vague and stylized memory rather than specific moments, there are certain parts that remain sharp to this day.  It was very interesting to see that some of those moments for me are echoed with other service members, specifically pertaining to bootcamp and recruitment.

I’m glad to understand this usually hidden facet of one of the faculty in our program.  I feel it gives the program a bit more depth to know that the professors are not just teaching but also creating and growing in their own art as well.