Joseph Mougel: Artist Now Lecture
Claire Haggarty

 Joseph Mougel, in addition to being the head of the photography department at UW-Milwaukee, was a guest speaker at our Artists Now! Lecture series.  Mougel uses a variety of styles and mediums while creating work and seems to draw quite a bit of inspiration from his time in the military. This is especially evident in his series Blanc. This specific series takes men and women in uniform and “white washes” them in away in order to strip them of an identity of sorts. I think it also allowed for a strong sense of disconnect as well as, in a way, erases traces of individuality from person to person.

Overall, I found the lecture to be very encouraging in the sense that our teachers have been able to find their own success with their work and that they will be able to advise us as well as we enter that stage in our own future careers.

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 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.

Kevin Miyazaki

Kevin Miyazaki

By Mandy Litwin

Kevin Miyazaki began his talk by mostly showing us a huge range of the work he has done in a more commercial setting. His craft and technique with his photography is very admirable. With every photo of his you see, there is an obvious sense of care. This includes his attention to lighting and composition, no matter the subject matter. During his talk, the audience learned about his experience with shooting all over the world, and for many different occasions and events.

The way he talks about his work also feels very confident. He knows what he is doing – and he does it. This is not only applicable in his commercial photography. As an artist, Kevin has a pretty clear mindset. A lot of his work is influenced by his family’s histories. His Guide to Modern Camp Homes project was very interesting. I like that he, in a sense, remixed a past real-life template to portray his concept. The presentation is unique and informs people on an important piece of history.

As someone who enjoys portraiture, his Perimeter series sat well with me. Though it is simple, I enjoy the idea of documenting people relatively casually. The images are beautiful and executed again with great care.

Event Review - James Nares

In Conversation: James Nares

Saturday, January 28^th at the Milwaukee Art Museum

By: Mandy Litwin

Seeing James Nares talk at the Milwaukee Art Museum this past weekend was very enjoyable. He is a multi-media visual artist who especially focuses on film-making. I had gone into the talk not knowing too much about his art. Though it was initially a bit slow getting into it, the way James Nares discussed his work – in sort of a chronological order – ended up making each piece make sense. He seems to have a big fascination with change over time, as well is sort of the human presence in those changes.

The talk was very informative and light hearted as he went through various videos and art works and explained their backgrounds. One of my pieces was Street in which he uses a high speed camera to capture people going about their everyday lives in the streets of New York. Besides being generally visually stimulating, it was interesting to see the tiniest details of the people; facial expressions, motions, and more. Due to the fact that the videos are shown at such a slow speed, you are given the ability to study the figures and make implications about each person.

Another example of his work that shows a sense of change over time are his paintings in which he creates a set of moving lines on a surface that moves continuously on a rotating cylinder. He creates brushes that push paint through them onto the surface as he desires. The motion of the cylinder creates the effect of continuous and winding lines on the piece.

James Nares work is quiet and subtle, but opens a world of fascination and deeper thinking when closely looked at.