Artist Talk - Sara Stathas

Artist Talk - Focus Photography Club
Sara Stathas
Photographer

By: Kylee Jo Diedrich

   Sara Stathas is a renowned photographer both in the Fine Art realm and Editorial photography realm. Stathas visited the Focus Photography Club to present her work and process. Instead of going over each project she photographs, she discussed her process and made her artist talk more of a discussion between the club members and herself. In the beginning of Stathas' talk she went over some of her favorite shoots for editorial work as well as her own self guided editorial shoots based on her own interests.
   One project in particular she discussed was her Disabled Deer Hunt was interesting because she showcased a group of people most likely unknown to the greater population. She followed the group of men out into the forest for a deer hunting excursion to witness the groups dynamics.

Disabled Deer Hunt   Sara Stathas


  After Stathas discussed her life's work she opening up the conversation to the club to answer questions. Some questions regarded her job as an editorial photographer. What the job entails, ways of becoming an editorial photographer, as well as how to stay in the zone of making art. Her answers were vague mostly because everyone is different and she was lucky in some cases. For example, Stathas shared the only reason she was the photographer for the Milwaukee Brewers was because of friend of hers was also a photographer for the Brewers. She also discussed how to stay connected and network one's way into receiving editorial jobs. Overall I was very enlightened about the job world of photography and learned great ways of staying connected and be open to job opportunities. At the end of her talk I went up to Stathas and asked further questions.

Artist Talk - Kayla Massey

Artist Talk - Focus Photography Club
Kayla Massey
Photographer

By: Kylee Jo Diedrich

   Kayla Massey is a graduate student attending UWM focusing on photography. Kayla visited the Focus Photography Club for their artist talk series and discussed a variety of her work. She began speaking about her undergraduate thesis project My Nurse Today is... and disclosed a terrible part of her history. Her undergraduate thesis project was about her going through cancer treatment, photographing herself change. This project was her way of coping with being stuck in a hospital room for months on end. Her photographs are both haunting and eye opening as well as sad and sterile looking.

                           My Nurse Today is... Kayla Massey


After she discussed her undergrad career, she continued on discussing her current project for her Masters of Fine Art degree. She went over the numerous paths she went down to come to her final rendition of her thesis. She discussed problems she ran into regarding research, photographing people and finally deciding on the perfect way to present her photographs. Hearing Massey discuss her path through school, there was a realization among the listeners that no matter how many attempts one makes on a project, it is never finished. Everything can be worked on more to produce a more evocative piece of work. Unfortunately since her thesis project is showcasing come May 19, 2017 images of her latest work are not available for viewing on her website.

  I felt that Kayla Massey's talk was perfect for the exiting senior undergraduates because she showed us that as we continue to work on our art there is always room for improvement. To give up on a project simply because there were some issues is foolish because sometimes the only way to learn is to make mistakes.

UWM Special Collections - Photo Book Collection

UWM Special Collections
Photo books
By: Raven Mrozek

UWM has an outstanding special collections resource on campus open to the public. This resource contains thousands of artist books, printed materials, and rare book collections. The range of materials the public has access to is greater than I was aware of. Max Yela and the team in Special Collections can aide in a broad range of research so it is a tool that I will look more into utilizing in my educational  and artistic future. 

After looking through the dozens of books Max Yela pulled for the class to look through, tableau photographer Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison and the collaborators' book The Architect's Brother caught my attention. Their work had an unusually haunting but stunning aesthetic that was very metaphorical and fantastical. After researching ParkeHarrison, I was amazed that they used a technique that was adapted from a type of negative process where they had the ability to combine multiple images into one image.  This process is one I am interested in researching and the hauntingly beautiful way they metaphorically expresses their concept is one I would like to use as an inspiration for future works of mine.

Field Trip - Special Collections UWM Libraries

UWM Special Collections
Artist Book Collection

by: Kylee Diedrich

Wednesday, March 8, as a class we visited the Special Collections at the UWM Library.  I have visited the area many times before, for work related events and also class events.  I find the Special Collections to be full of great resources and objects to help students learn and explore possibilities in many realms of study. Librarian Max Yela placed numerous photographic artist's books out for us all to view.  Some were unique hand-made artist's books, while many were trade publications.

The books I found most interesting and I engaged with most were the artist-made books that showed the artist's hand in some way.  They were unique and visually appealing, giving a unique views on someone's idea of a book. Nothing is wrong with printed books from a commercial publisher, I just found myself drawn to the special and unique books.

While talking with Max Yela more individually he brought out more artist books for me to look at. He also helped me decide a possible direction for my own artist book for my senior thesis project.  I have been trying to decide a direction to go and visiting the Special Collection and talking with Max I was able to decide on a medium and style.

These artist books were among the ones Max brought out to me that influence my decision to build my own  artist's book.  To create something by hand, and create a physical object that is not reproducible. 

Max also pointed out an artist book (one of many copies) made by one of my professors Nicolas Lampert. I found his style to be interesting and inspired me to think more about how I would incorporate my images in the book as well as binding techniques. 

While viewing the other books, I found page numbering, text, poems, and sound to be interesting approaches to creating a book.  I decided on a style I liked in terms of image, text, and page number placements that can add to what my project is trying to address. This visit made me more excited about my own book making and I look forward to what might transpire in the next half of the semester. 

Landscape - Penelope Umbrico

Landscape: Penelope Umbrico
By Deshawn Brown

Penelope Umbrico is an artist / photographer known for appropriating images found using search engines and picture sharing websites. Her work has been published in books, exhibited and she has received awards. She was born in Philadelphia in 1957 and graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. She received her MFA from the School of Visual Art and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Currently, she is a faculty member in the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, video, and related Media Program and resides in New York City. Her work is in collections including International Center of Photography (NY), McNay Museum of Art (TX), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Museum of Contemporary Photography (IL), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (CA), Museum of Modern Art (NY).

I feel her work,  is very simple. She doesn’t do anything on her own but search images on google, yahoo, etc. She then combines these images together into one whole rectangular collage. I understand that she wants to show the audience about how we  use the internet to consume and create materials over a period of time,but I wish there was a better outlook about the way they were captured.

Ideas - Phantasm - Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe

Ideas/Phantasm: Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe
By Deshawn Brown

Byron Wolfe is an associate Professor and the Program Director of Photography at the Tyler School of Art, Center for the Arts, at Temple University in Philadelphia. In his career as artist / photographer, he has published 4 books. One book has been solo, the other three books have been done collaboratively. Wolfe’s photographs connect his interests in time, change, and place. Currently, he is the Program Director for Photography at the Tyler School of Art.

Mark Klett is also an American photographer. He photographs the intersection of cultures, landscapes and time. Before coming into the world of photography, he had a background as a geologist and uses what he has learned to create the re-photographed images. Klett has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Buhl Foundation, and the Japan/US Friendship Commission. His work has been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally for over 30 years, and his work is held in over 80 museum collections worldwide.

I think that their collage ideas are somewhat like Penelope Umbrico, bothworking with re-photographed images. I do like to see the changes in the landscapes because, as humans, I do believe we are damaging the world around us and the changes from where we are and where were a century ago look totally different.

Artist Talk: Kevin Miyazaki
By Deshawn Brown

Kevin Miyazaki is a local artist/ photographer living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He addresses  issues around Wisconsin; about family, history and both personal and institutional spaces. His photos have been shown at The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and The Rayko Photo Center and in solo exhibitions. Kevin is an adjunct faculty member at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and was an artist in residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in 2015. I really enjoyed the portraits of the people that Kevin came across. He captured these people as who they are. By removing the background, the artist focused dead on all the attributes that describes each person: their hair, body size, clothing, posture, etc. The photos of the Great Lakes where he found his subjects were far less interesting to me.

Report - Artist Talk- Joseph Mougel

Joseph Mougel

by: Allison Krenz

On February 15th at UW Milwaukee, Milwaukee resident and artist Joseph Mougel shared a part of his process and his story. Having enlisted in the Marines, Mougel spent his time in the Marines looking for moments of humor. The humor he found carries itself into his other work, such as Yello-Cake, a project in which he actually made, canned, and marketed his own special brand of Uranium. The most interesting thing about Mougel's work is that the process that goes into making his work is almost always a part of the final piece. No one piece stands alone as one final image (despite his being a photographer) but rather each body of work can be viewed as a performance from start to finish. 

Joseph Mougel in the kitchen for Yello-Cake

Joseph Mougel stitches together art, photography, performance, science, and media, which makes him an artist worth watching for a large audience. The biggest take away from Mougel's presentaton is to never ignore any part of your process. Living and performing your work is the best way to explore every facet of it, and make the best experience possible.

Event Report - Joseph Mougel - Artist Talk

Joseph Mougel
Photographer

By Kylee Jo Diedrich

Recently Joseph Mougel treated Artist Now! students to a lively talk about his artwork. He gave an overview of projects he completed while a Marine to his current work as a professor and Photography Area Head at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Joseph went from handing out slide projectors to his fellow Marines, to creating videos of himself digging holes.

I found his most memorable body of work to be Blanc, a series of portraits of people painted stark white, in military uniforms.This work creates a discussion about the invisibility and uniformity the uniforms gave people.  He explained how his feelings evolved as he wore his uniform and he used this projects to meditate upon his new civilian life.

Blanc 004

Another project in which Mougel focused on his life in the military is Rabbit to Bee, showcasing the altered life he now leads. Arguably, most of his work relates back to his life as a Marine when everything was systematic, organized, repetitive, and inquisitive. His hole digging recalls when he had to dig numerous holes on the base. His videos of people following orders links back to when someone was telling him what to do or say.  I find the meditative nature of Mougel's work revealing to those who never experienced military life.  

The way Mougel approaches his work is similar to mine.  I think about the way the images can subtly discuss a topic and work many iterations of a project until a good solution can be made.  He is a great mentor and his process in creating is spread amongst all of his students.  Mougel uses humor, satire, environmental interests, and his military career to fuel his work.  I too use my past to influence my work as I grow as a photographer in today's world. 

Economics-Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky

Photographer

by Kylee Jo Diedrich

Edward Burtynsky focuses on global industrial landscapes. His work began by photographing the General Motors plant in his hometown of Ontario, Canada when he was young. His work explores the human imprint on the natural landscape, not as a landscape photographer, but a photographer of human systems in the world. He uses aerial photography to capture visually stimulating and enticing images. Burtynsky's work is unique. He straps his expensive cameras to drones capturing the right aerial photograph, and exhibits extremely large scale prints. 

Thjorsà River, Iceland, 2012

Burtynsky does not frequently photograph untouched landscapes, however this Iceland image is one of a pristine landscape.  

Burtysnky's photographs are, in his own words,

"meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire - a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times." 

I think his photographs touch on the sense of time. The time it takes for oil to spread through a river, or for a river to dry up in a desert. Ironically, human influence on the land seems to take no time, yet it takes a very long time to recover the landscape, sometimes impossible. His work is extremely pertinent today.  I connect with this work because my work begins my understanding of the folly of human industrial activity on the land.

                                                     VeronaWalk

Naples, Florida, USA, 2012

Commerce/Economics - Cristina de Middel

Cristina de Middel
By: Ryan Cindric

Born in Spain in 1975, Cristina de Middel made her way to the US where she received her MA in photography from the University of Oklahoma. Returning to Europe, she earned a Fine Arts degree in Photojournalism. She describes how she blended these two disciplines,

 "The magic of the darkroom really seduced me at the beginning. Later when I finished my studies in fine arts, I didn't feel I had much in common with contemporary art practice. I felt the message was too encoded and too far away from the audience, so I decided to make a more practical use of what I had learned."

From: Afronauts

By developing interesting visual stories within documentary form, Middel created her own photographic language.  Afronauts, describes Zambian science teacher, Edward Makuka, who decided to train the first African crew to travel to the moon in 1964. Middel gives viewers actual document facsimiles accompanied by fantastical narrative photographs and  

 through her unique interpretation of the story reinterprets an historical event. She explains,

 "I wanted to try and tell interesting stories with an interesting language within photography, but still within a documentary practice." 

From: Afronauts

I am truly envious of Middel's ability to create a project knowing exactly what she wants to achieve and executing it clearly. Middel's success is based high level of visual skill, book design and editing, no matter what project is she is working on. Middle stuns viewers with unexpected concepts and execution.

From: This is What Hatred Did

Identity - Gender - Jess T. Dugan

By David Kieckhefer

Jess T. Dugan is an artist whose work explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity, and community. In her series, Every breath we drew, Dugan’s photographs explore what it means to be masculine. When asked about her own identity, Dugan says, “I’m part of trans community; I’m not a lesbian and I’m not a gay man but I hang out in those spaces. I think I’m hyper aware of how my identity changes in different contexts.” Dugan’s work asks for her viewers to question the gender binary, as she believes these gender roles are failing the LGBTQ community. Dugan photographs people in their homes, usually in their bedrooms, using medium and large format cameras to create a very detailed and intimate portrait. Dugan holds an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago, a Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies from Harvard University, and a BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

http://www.jessdugan.com

Dugan’s website is extremely clean with no added color or flare to distract from her images. It is very user friendly and easy to navigate. I found myself very drawn to her work because of my own interest and personal experiences as a gay man in the LBGTQ community. Much of my own work is centered around gender identity and sexuality. I have been shooting portraits and would like to have more control over my lighting, and am currently learning new techniques in my Studio Lighting course.