Guest Lecture - Miguel Gandert
Terrill Yazzie
Miguel Gandert talked about his love for photography and explained briefly how he became
a distinguished professor by being a journalist for 15 years. One insight of his work which
he explained was one he had for his dissertation where he had his subjects look directly in
the camera photos as a way of intimidation; since most of the faculty was white who were
evaluating him. Most of his work was black and white and were photographs taken here in the
area of Albuquerque and Northern New Mexico. He found the rituals of the native communities
very appealing with an aspect to cultural diversity, and learned this by photographing his
subjects. Professor Gandert explained that his creative process focuses on being a part of
what ever subject he is going photograph and that it happens in the moment.
3 Questions
- Have any of your photos help spark creativity in other students or colleagues in other fields of study?
- How many projects did you feel were not successful, but upon completion, felt that you had did something new?
- Did Yale ask for any kind of specific future projects of your work?
3 Future directions
- Create a photography albums of people in their creative state, such as thinking, day dreaming, or doodling which can help foster people's creativity.
- Start taking photos of an area of Albuquerque or any area you choose and take photos over the years of that same place and make a flip book of it.
- Use the social interactions necessary to take your photos and present them as a sociobiological point of view.
