Grohmann Museum | SOCIOLOGRAPHY

The beginning of 2019 has been full of photographic and film events, but I’d like to pause and share details from my three exhibitions in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Chicago.

The first is my exhibition “Three Communities” at the Tube Factory Artspace in Indianapolis, Indiana. The show explores the relationship between community and place by featuring a new project in Indianapolis alongside my work from Hauts-de-France Mining Basin and The Area. The in-process Indianapolis project explores the south side Bean Creek neighborhood’s longstanding connection to its namesake creek and the way it divides and connects the community.

The second is “Growing Place: A Visual Study of Urban Farming,” my collaboration with Michael Carriere at the Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through new photographs and archival materials, the exhibition explores the development of urban gardening as a practice essential to the city’s growth and identity, and foregrounds the current work of activists like Growing Power’s Will Allen.

The third is my dual show at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, “Chicago Stories: Recent Work by Carlos Javier Ortiz and David Schalliol.” The exhibition pairs my Isolated Building Studies and The Area with Carlos Javier Ortiz‘s outstanding Chicago-based work as a response to Birmingham, Alabama, 1963: Dawoud Bey/Black Star.

We designed some powerful events for each exhibition, including talks with Will Allen, screenings with Deborah Payne, and panel discussions about Chicago’s ongoing experience with segregation.

Installation and event photographs are below.

Three Communities
Tube Factory Artspace in Indianapolis, Indiana

Photograph by Molly Hanse

Photograph by Brian Ashby

Growing Place: A Visual Study of Urban Farming
The Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Photograph by Esther Carriere

Chicago Stories: Recent Work by Carlos Javier Ortiz and David Schalliol
Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Illinois

Still by Scrappers Film Group

Your Company Name & Logo Here (2011)

Since Fall 2009 historian Michael Carriere and I have been working on a project documenting a range of community and economic initiatives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On Friday, December 16, the first public presentation of that material will open at the Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee. The exhibition, entitled “Working Legacies: The Death and (After) Life of Post-Industrial Milwaukee,” will run at the Grohmann, 1000 N. Broadway, until February 6, 2012. A Gallery Night event with the two of us will run from 5-9pm on January 20, 2012.

Additional information about the show is available in this interview on Salon. Background information can be found on The Huffington Post. An image of the exhibition and sample photographs follow.