Event Review - Joseph Mougel - Artist Now

Joseph Mougel

by: Hayley Ishihara

Joseph Mougel is a Milwaukee based photographer originally from Georgia. He is currently the Area Head of the Photography Department at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Mougel's work with photography began in the Marine Corps when he first was taught the basics aboard ship. Soon after that, he began working with commercial photography before going to a university in Georgia for business. When he figured out business wasn't the right path for him, he began working documentary photography. Mougel received his BFA in photography from the University of Georgia and his MFA from the University of New Mexico where he also studied video and interactive arts. One of his favorite subjects to document was himself and most of his images are shot with a large format 4x5 camera. 
In the beginning,  much of his work revolved around performance and the way the military had changed his life. Between making what he calls "training videos", he also made a project entitled Blanc. In this project, he painted men and women ages 18-25 that had never served in the military. The white paint hid the model's identities, although it speaks to the world that every one in this country carries the same of the burden that military veterans carry with themselves.








Another project that Mougel spent quite a bit of time on is entitled Hole. This project intertwines photography and video. He would spend a day digging a human sized hole and making a video either from within the hole looking out, from above looking in or directly outside watching what may appear from the that hole; usually himself. Below is a video of himself eating breakfast in one of these holes on the Marquette University's campus.



One of the most interesting ideas that I received from Mougel's talk is that that art can be made anywhere, in a field, in a studio or even in a hole in the ground. And sometimes, how you made the work is more important than the final product that was made.