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Guest Lecture - Miguel Gandert

Jennifer Piarowski

Miguel Gandert is a photographer native to New Mexico. His photography focuses on the people and the cultures of our state. I was stunned by the beauty of his photos and was shocked that I had never heard of such a prolific, local artist like himself. His earlier works focused on the people of his childhood neighborhood and seemed raw and honest to me. As Miguel got older, he determined a niche for his photograph lied in capturing cultural moments around the state.

An interesting thing to note about Miguel's work is that he works mainly in film and never crops his photos. These self-imposed parameters force Miguel to think through every one of his shots. He takes the photo that he wants to see and print the moment he presses the shutter button.

He has been "purchased" by Yale University and regularly puts out work/. I would like to look into more of his collections and read some the written portions of those collections.

I would have liked to ask him:

1. Do you have a person you adore shooting (a favorite)?
2. Were you very involved in cultural events in your own neighborhood?
3. Is there anything that you refuse to photograph?

Future:

1. It would be interesting for Miguel to follow a hispanic new mexican family throughout a month or longer of their day to day life via a photographic story.
2. Miguel could write an autobiography with photos.
3. He could do a photographic collection of other photographers while they work.