Jeanine Michna-Bales
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American, born 1971
Projects/Portfolios
Standing Together
Introduction
STANDING TOGETHER: Photographs of Inez Milholland's Final Campaign for Woman's Suffrage
A Photo Essay by Jeanine Michna-Bales, 2016-2020: Project Research and Principal Photography 2012 - 2020
Since 2016, Michna-Bales has been researching the Suffrage chapter of American history. The project champions a little-known figure who was at the forefront of the suffrage movement in the early 20th century, Inez Milholland Boissevain (1886 – 1916).
Organizing and leading marches on horseback while dressed in white, Milholland helped form the Congressional Union for Woman’s Suffrage (also known as The National Woman’s Party). The group mounted a radical campaign for women’s suffrage in the Western states just prior to the 1916 Presidential election in which President Wilson was running for reelection. At that time only 12 states, all in the west, allowed women the full right to vote. Hundreds of women were asked to travel west to appeal to the newly empowered women voters to put aside all other political agendas and unite behind their non-voting sisters back east. Various keynote speakers were chosen to head the campaign including Harriet Stanton Blatch, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter, and Inez Milholland. Although she would never personally benefit from a National Suffrage Amendment, Inez battled chronic illness, lack of sleep and delivered some 50 speeches in eight states in 28 days.
Through Darkness to Light
Introduction
THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad
A Photo Essay by Jeanine Michna-Bales, 2002 - 2016: Project Research from 2002 - 2016 and Principal Photography from 2012 - 2015.
They left during the middle of the night – oftentimes carrying little more than the knowledge that moss grows on the north side of trees. An estimated 100,000 American slaves in the decades prior to The Civil War in 1865 chose to embark on this journey of untold hardships in search of freedom. They moved in constant fear of being killed outright or recaptured then returned and beaten as an example of what would happen to others who might choose to run. Under the cover of darkness, ‘fugitives’ traveled roughly 20 miles each night traversing rugged terrain while enduring all the hardships that Mother Nature could bring to bear. Occasionally, they were guided from one secret, safe location to the next by an ever-changing, clandestine group known as the Underground Railroad. Whether they were slaves trying to escape or free blacks and whites trying to help, both sides risked everything for the cause of freedom. From a cotton plantation just South of Natchitoches, Louisiana all the way north into Canada, this series of photographs can help us imagine what the long road to freedom may have looked like as seen through the eyes of one freedom seeker who made this epic journey.
The series has an accompanying publication by the same title, as well as a traveling exhibition 2017 - 2027 through Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Please visit the project website at ThroughDarknesstoLight.com.
Fallout
Introduction
FALLOUT: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America, circa 1960
A Photo Essay by Jeanine Michna-Bales, 2013 - Present: Project Research and Principal Photography from 2013 - present
In 2018 the Doomsday Clock was set to 2 minutes to midnight, at the time it was the closest it has ever been to striking midnight since the height of the Cold War in 1953 when both the United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear weapons for the first time within 10 months of each other.
Hearing this we might actually think that we had stepped back in time to the height of the Cold War. In light of these announcements and other recent developments, it is more vital than ever to view our uncertain present through the lens of the past.
Thousands of fallout shelters were left behind by the Cold War generation. Many remain intact, but are hidden, underground and unseen. I believe, in many ways, these spaces may be viewed as a warning to us today. Referencing declassified information from the Cuban Missile Crisis, I have been working since 2013 on a series that gives voice to these unique architectural spaces that were built throughout the U.S. in the 1950s and ‘60s. Spaces that one can step into and feel how terrified most Americans actually were at the thought of a nuclear holocaust. The images will ultimately highlight the Cold War experience through shelter spaces in 14 cities.
Found documents from the period overlaid on some of the images offer a chilling insight into the psychological effects of the Cold War on government officials and ordinary citizens. These period documents play an important role by serving as a kind of ‘interview’ with those who lived through this experience but are no longer here to bear witness. The juxtaposition of shelter spaces that have remained virtually untouched except by the effects of time, and found text like casualty statistics helps us understand that Civil Defense was only a way to maintain some semblance of order with the threat of nuclear war hanging over Americans’ heads day in and day out. Most major cities only had enough shelter space for roughly 40% of their daytime population. With the advent of faster technology to deliver nuclear warheads in the 60’s and later, the remaining populace would face dire circumstances if they survived at all.
This project will be part of a traveling exhibition launching in 2021 with fellow photographer Adam Reynolds entitled "Two Minutes to Midnight and the Architecture of Armageddon."
Arnika Dawkins Gallery, Atlanta, GA, United States
PDNB Gallery, Dallas, TX, United States
Process Statement
Jeanine Michna-Bales is a conceptual fine artist working in the medium of photography. Her work explores our fundamentally important relationships – to the land, to other people and to oneself – and how they impact contemporary society. Her work lives at the intersection of curiosity and knowledge, documentary and fine art, past and present, anthropology and sociology, and environmentalism and activism. Her practice is based on in-depth research – taking into account different viewpoints, causes and effects, political climates – and she often incorporates primary source material into her projects.
Jeanine Michna-Bales is a conceptual fine artist working in the medium of photography. Her work explores our fundamentally important relationships – to the land, to other people and to oneself – and how they impact contemporary society. Her work lives at the intersection of curiosity and knowledge, documentary and fine art, past and present, anthropology and sociology, and environmentalism and activism. Her practice is based on in-depth research – taking into account different viewpoints, causes and effects, political climates – and she often incorporates primary source material into her projects.
A comprehensive publication of the Underground Railroad series, Through Darkness to Light, was released in 2017 by Princeton Architectural Press and includes a foreword by Andrew Young. An accompanying traveling exhibition through Mid-America Arts Alliance is currently touring the country through 2027.
Michna-Bales’s work is in many permanent collections including Archive of Documentary Arts, Duke University; Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida; Lehigh University Art Galleries; Library of Congress; Louisiana State University, Hill Memorial Library; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Portland Art Museum; Princeton University Art Museum; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; The Phillips Collection; The University of Texas at Dallas; and University of North Texas.
Michna-Bales’s work has been featured in exhibitions throughout the United States and has been featured in numerous publications and online blogs including BBC World News, Dallas Morning News, In Sight by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lenscratch, NBC4 Washington DC, New York Times Lens Blog, Orion Magazine, O The Oprah Magazine, Oxford American Eyes on the South, Smithsonian.com, Transition from Harvard University, UK Daily Mail, Virginia Quarterly Review, WABE 90.1 Atlanta’s NPR Station, WCPN-NPR and WVIZ-PBS ideastream Cleveland, among others.
She conceives and presents her projects in a way that spark curiosity about a given subject and encourage discourse among audiences of all backgrounds. Whether exploring the darkened stations along the Underground Railroad in "Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad" (2002 - 2016), a campaign trail for women’s votes in "Standing Together: Photographs of Inez Milholland’s Final Campaign for Woman’s Suffrage" (2016 - 2020), long-forgotten nuclear fallout shelters in "Fallout: A Look Back at the Height of the Cold War in America, circa 1960" (2013 - present), or the invisible epicenters of environmental turmoil through the project "Frack-tured Land: Seismic Activity in the Barnett Shale" (2015 - present), her work seeks out places that are hidden in plain sight.
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