The Lens

What is the relationship between the natural world and civilization? Is it a battle between human creation and the natural world, an intense struggle to dominate the land? Or a soft, sad lullaby, pushing and pulling slowly like the tide between the two forces? This relationship is varied and nuanced from societal to personal disruptions. Nature responds, reclaiming its space after the impact of human life. The artists in I Don’t Know How to Love You: The Relationship Between Humans and Nature challenge the construction of narratives around this relationship. Sayler/Morris, a... Continue reading I Don’t Know How to Love You: The Relationship Between Humans and Nature

This photographic exploration is co-curated by Miami University Art Museum Curator of Exhibitions Jason E. Shaiman and Cincinnati-based independent curator William Messer. PhotOH is an invitational exhibition surveying the work of photographers from across the state of Ohio in accord with the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial theme, World Record. Of the 75 photographers who submitted in response to an invitation, 27 were selected for inclusion. The exhibition features 52 photographs, including 2 works from 25 photographers and 2 from a collaboration. The selected work presents a considerable range of photographic practices, styles, and subject matter.... Continue reading PhotOH: Photographers in the Heartland

In a world that has been filled with tragedies we would like to forget—wars, recessions, pandemics—what aspects of our lives would we like to hold onto forever? Over the course of a five-week residency led by Asa Featherstone, IV, eight students learned the basic elements of storytelling, mobile/digital/film photography, filmmaking, and interviewed a collection of people within their community from different generations that explores this question. The students created a collection of new works that become an abstract multimedia exhibition about freedom, justice, wonder, and coming of age through multiple eras. Featherstone guided production and shared work alongside the youth apprentices. Continue reading As We Bloom

How can we understand the violence that photography so often exerts and still use it to make something tender? Can any technology, which is by definition a machine-made, standardized, dehumanized touch, be tender? When does a photograph create a space for compassionate looking—especially for those that the camera has historically denied such tenderness?

This exhibition demonstrates how photographers use tenderness as a radical tool to confront the racist and colonial gaze of photography. A tender photograph understands the political implications of seeing and being seen, as well as one that creates counter narratives and confronts history. 

Wave Pool Guest Curators... Continue reading Photography and Tenderness

PhotOH2: Other Photographers from the Heartland revisits work submitted for consideration to Miami University Art Museum's co-curated exhibition PhotOH: Photographers in the Heartland (curated from more than 500 submitted works from 109 invited photographers based throughout Ohio, plus several from the northern Kentucky area of Greater Cincinnati). Beyond the consensus selections of MUAM curator Jason E. Shaiman and independent curator William Messer, there remained a number of very interesting photographers. In PhotOH2: OPH, Messer has selected works from various photographers for installation at Iris in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine . Artists: Continue reading PhotOH2: Other Photographers from the Heartland