Alvin, WI © Mark Brautigam
Mark Brautigam, a fellow Milwaukeean, has released a print today on collect.give. The picture comes from his terrific project On Wisconsin and Mark is pledging all proceeds to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.
strawberry from a bowl in the fridge © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
© Laura Hughes, left, Zachary Seib, center, Alec Schuppel, right
We've started up the MIAD-FA382 blog once again, with a new group of photography majors from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. The first blog assignment was to post their favorite picture from the summer, and a few examples are above. Please stop by and take a look at the students' work, and know that there's much more ahead in the next few months.
Also, we're also approaching 600 photographer interview and informational links on the site, so visit us for lots of additional photography content, too.
The Wedding Portrait, 2005 © Jane Fulton Alt
Chicago photographer Jane Fulton Alt made a timely offering this week on collect.give. The photo was shot in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and all proceeds will benefit the group Lower 9th Ward Village.
contents of the small glass vase © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
room 409 (which ironically was not that clean) ludington, mi © kjm
I've been on the road a lot lately.
Elvis the Zebra © Matt Eich
Matt Eich offered this lovely image this week on collect.give. Matt is one of the founders of LUCEO, a collective of incredibly talented young shooters (I've written before here about the work of Kevin German here before). Matt pledges 100% of proceeds to the organization Critical Exposure, with specific hopes to buy a quality digital camera for a group of inspired young students. In many ways, Matt (who's 24) represents the future of photojournalism (yes, there is one) in hard times. And through his collect.give pledge, he's looking a little further down the path.
© kjm
A group of us headed north last week to The Poor Farm, an exhibition and learning space created by Chicago artists and educators Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam. The huge, old building is a work in progress, both physically and creatively. From the 1870's to the 1930's, it housed destitute individuals who worked on the adjacent farm. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Mary Louise Schumacher has, and will be writing about the unique art space. While we were there, she was compiling components for a future multimedia piece, so stay tuned.
(Re: these images: I may be the last photographer with a phone to get the CameraBag app. And I love it, especially since I haven't shot with a square format camera in about 20 years.)
After the Birthday Party © Stella Kalaw
Stella Kalaw has offered a print on collect.give - with very personal connections to her niece, who suffered a stroke at birth. Her photograph, above, was taken after one of her niece's birthday parties, and Stella has pledged 100% of the proceeds to The Guidance Center, which was central to her treatment following the stroke.
at that Starbucks in Seattle after crossing the very busy road by our hotel, sort of near the space needle © kjm
Nine things intended to make Marilu smile on the anniversary of our first date:
American Woman.
You have two hands.
Gravitas.
Kablooey.
Sweetest of peas.
Don't do that.
Blah, blah, blah.
The ol' noggin.
Yalla!
Polar Bears, 2008 © Colleen Plumb
The Milwaukee Art Museum Photography Council held it's inaugural benefit last night, with curator Lisa Hostetler at the helm and lots of great items in the silent auction. The hardworking members of the Photography Council (note: Milwaukee is a great photography city!) included photographers Sonja Thomsen, Lindsay Lochman and Mel Trittin. And the crowd was full of interesting creatives: Photographers Jason Reblando, Shimon and Lindemann, Bob Smith, Sarah McEneany, Aron Gent and Tara Bogart, designers Patrick and Libby Castro, gallerist Deb Brehmer and Andy Adams of Flak Photo. Marilu and I were lucky to be the high bidders on the wonderful Colleen Plumb picture, above.
[see past my so called collection entries here]
dried kale leaf © kjm
... and this, from the depths of the refrigerator - Marilu identified the near-petrified leaves as kale.
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
spiderweb © kjm
I've been away for weeks, and returned to find this spiderweb constellation in my bedroom window. It's good to know someone was working so hard in my absence.
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
one dollar’s worth of tomatillos from Mexico © Jonathan Blaustein
I'd be willing to bet that many of us have a dollar's worth of change in our couch. Jonathan Blaustein's series The Value of a Dollar examines the value of what goes into our mouths, in a simple, straightforward and aesthetically lovely manner. Last week, Jonathan offered this print on collect.give, with all proceeds pledged to the UN World Food Programme.
mom on the beach in Kona, around 1955
In our family, we tell stories about the hams on my mom's father's side of the family, and it's by no means a criticism. There's a respected entertaining chutzpah that runs throughout, and my mom is no exception. When she was in her 20's, she taught the hula to young girls in Hawaii. This week, she performed for an Irish American club in Milwaukee, which was having their annual party with a Hawaiian theme. By all accounts, she was a hit, performing a few single numbers and then teaching the group how to do the hukilau. When I arrived to pick her up, the club didn't seem to want to let her go.
Cannon Beach © kjm
I went from shooting Camp Home pictures, to the Tule Lake pilgrimage, and ended my travels this week at a family reunion on the Oregon Coast. Members of my mom's family came from Hawaii, Oregon, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey for the event. It was nice to catch up with everyone and to meet a few new additions to the group. For me, the highlight of the reunion came during a beach dinner and bonfire (that's us in the foreground), when my Uncle Stuart pulled out his ukulele and entertained the group.
Shipwreck © Amy Eckert
Last week, photographer Amy Eckert offered up this lovely print from her series Manufacturing Home on collect.give. 100% of the proceeds will benefit the organization Feminist Eclectic Martial Arts. And buyers of any print during the month of July will be eligible for a free copy of Susana Raab's book, Rank Strangers, through our new book giveaways...
train tracks leading to Newell, CA © kjm
I didn't have an agenda for the Tule Lake Pilgrimage this weekend, but had hoped to ask Nisei (second generation, American-born Japanese Americans who were children or young adults during the camp) I met about their particular home within the barracks. I never really got around to that, though, because everyone's background and camp history was so interesting. The variety of stories was surprising, and I learned that each family, though interned in the same camp, had uniquely compelling histories.
Among the stories, I learned about: A woman whose most vivid memory was taking their dog to the pound before leaving for camp; A family who hastily moved to an inland California location in hopes of avoiding evacuation, only to move again when interned; A woman who caught pneumonia at age 4 in an assembly center (locations where families were sent prior to internment camps) and due to security issues, was treated in a local hospital for days without a parent or guardian; Stories about burning prized family possessions because they were Japanese; A woman who happened to have been born on December 6, 1941.
But the sadness associated with some of the stories didn't dictate the tone of the weekend. It was an incredibly friendly group and conversations were made easily, in an environment that felt comfortable, uplifting and therapeutic, all at once.
5052A-19617 (shed light) © kjm
My titles for Camp Home are a combination of two numbers: the number that represents the location it was shot - so in the photo above, 5052 is the number that was assigned to the particular homestead farm property. That number is combined with 19617, which is the number the government gave my family during the internment.
In just my first hour at the Tule Lake Pilgrimage, I learned the number associated with the barrack and actual space my family resided in: 5903b. After so much time thinking about this specific place, it's somewhat amazing to put an "address" to a place that I've only imagined.
5056A-19617 (sun tea) © kjm
After three days of shooting, I'll be joining the annual Tule Lake Pilgrimage today, a gathering of former camp internees, their offspring and others. Nearly 400 people arrive today on buses from cities along the West Coast, for weekend of remembering, visiting and education. I expect to learn a lot about the camp experience in the days to come, and look forward to meeting lots of people. In particular, I'm hoping to talk with former internees about what their physical living space was like in their assigned barracks.
Looking west down County Road 100 © kjm
I'm back in California, continuing my work on the Camp Home series. Frankly, I've been disappointed that it's been so long since my last visit, so it feels good to be back. And things seem to pick up just where they left off - by now the roads, landscapes, farms and family names are familiar.
Basically, when I'm here I drive around a lot, down a series of small county roads, in search of buildings to photograph. It's apparent to me this visit that I've covered most of the ground here, but there are still farms I haven't approached yet, or found. Again this year, I've been pleased that the people I've met have been so kind - and in the best case scenario, a little conversation arises about my dad, the camp, and the history of the homesteaders.
More in the days to come.
© Brian Widdis, left, Romain Blanquart, right
I had a long stretch of editorial work on the road recently, and was able to carve out little bits of time (one has to eat, right?) to connect with friends in other cities. In Detroit, I met up with Brian Widdis and Romain Blanquart, whose project Can't Forget The Motor City is really wonderful. In Minneapolis, I had a nice dinner with photographers Kristine Heykants and Raoul Benevides, the man behind the curtain at Flashlight Photorental. Amy Eckert, a recent winner of a McKnight fellowship, met up for a coffee and filled me in on the details of her latest show. And in Dallas, I finally met Allison V. Smith in person (after years of being blog buddies) and had a very fun dinner with two of my favorite art directors, Korena Bolding and Melanie Fowler, who design the lovely Virtuoso Life.
broken plate © kjm
[within reach is a series of photographs examining the environment of home in detail]
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