This week on Inside The Warehouse, Milwaukee based photographer, graphic designer, and educator Kevin J. Miyazaki discusses his series Perimeter. Three photographs from Perimeter were on display at the Warehouse Art Museum as a part of the On the Nature of Wisconsin exhibition.
Kevin Miyazaki, "Milwaukee, Wisconsin" (2012) Archival pigment print
Kevin Miyazaki, "Namur, Wisconsin" (2012) Archival pigment print
Kevin Miyazaki, "Washington Island, Wisconsin" (2012) Archival pigment print
“These three photographs are from the series, Perimeter, which originated as a commission by the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University. For an exhibition at the museum (and a subsequent book published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press), I made a 13-day drive around the perimeter of Lake Michigan.The original approach was about portraiture, with the idea of capturing a contemporary view of Lake Michigan through the people who knew it best - those who lived, worked and played in
and along side it. And indeed, I photographed nearly 300 people I met during that drive, setting up with a portable photo booth on beaches, roads and parking lots adjacent to the Lake. I stayed off of all interstate highways during my trip, instead always trying to find the lake. I like to think of it as one giant left hand turn. There were parts of the lake that were open and scenic, but others that were far less accessible, usually by nature of wealthy land owners or industrial business. But each time I did find a view of the lake, I photographed it in a very straightforward manner, with the horizon at the center of the image. These pictures were really just meant to be a travelog of sorts, a record of where I had been. I knew the lake would present itself in wonderful new ways each time I shot it, but was ultimately still surprised at the diversity of color, the range of weather and the shifting beauty it revealed. When it came time to exhibit the photographs at the Haggerty, I ultimately installed a grouping of both the portraits and the water pictures. The portraits evoked notions of cultural history and tradition, but they also revealed changing demographics in the states that border the lake. So the diversity of my portrait subjects paired nicely with the many faces of Lake Michigan.”
-Kevin J. Miyazaki
Kevin Miyazaki, “Naomi Sanders, Gulliver, Michigan” (2012)
“Davis Chang, Sheboygan, Wisconsin” (2012)