Artist's Statement

David Schiff
10/27/09
Film 150


Artist Statement



One of the first things I learned when I returned to school was I had to approach things with an open mind and a willingness to learn. I have learned to be more culturally sensitive and understanding of the diverse population in Milwaukee, in my own neighborhood (Franklin Heights), and here at UWM. The chance to learn about the South Side of Milwaukee, one of the most culturally diverse in the entire city was a chance to increase my ethnic awareness. The opportunity to meet the students at Loyola Academy was an added benefit. I have worked with at risk students before as my own son went to Norris School in Mukwonago. I hope that our representation of UWM inspires these students to seek higher education either at UWM or another university.
There are many churches on the South Side with a rich history that would be interesting to explore and photograph. One of them would be the Basilica of St. Josaphat; I learned a basilica refers to the style of the building and the Basilica of St. Josaphat is a Minor Basilica. St. Josaphat was created by Pope Pius XI in 1929 only the third church so honored in the USA. St. Josaphat is patterned after St. Peter’s in Rome and is recognized by Milwaukee as an official landmark. There is also St. Stanislaus in the historic Mitchell St. district which is also a designated landmark. Another area I considered exploring in South Milwaukee was Grant Park and the Seven Bridges Trail. Grant Park is best known as one of Milwaukee’s haunted hot spots, and a place where you can hike through the woods and gain access to the beach on Lake Michigan. Grant Park is also home to the first golf course operated by Milwaukee County, Grant Park Golf Course opened in 1920. Another place that is supposedly haunted is Forest Home Cemetery in Jackson Park, which is home to over 110,000 burials including 28 Milwaukee mayors, 7 Wisconsin governors, and several noted industrialists.
These were all good choices but I chose to start my photographic journey at the Mitchell Park Domes a conservatory located at Mitchell Park. I was immediately greeted by a flock of Canadian geese on a rainy day. The Domes are composed of three beehive shaped glass domes that span 140 ft. in diameter and are 85 ft. high. They are the world’s first conidial domes and cover 45,000 sq. ft. and took 8 years to build starting in 1959 and finishing in 1967 at a total cost of 4.5 million dollars. In 2008 the lobby was remodeled and external and internal lights were added. There is also a plan to add a greenhouse complex at the rear of the Conservatory. The three domes have different climate settings for the exposition of its contents. The Show Dome opened in 1964 and hosts four seasonal shows and one holiday exhibit held annually in December. The themes are based on cultural interests like Japanese, German, or French, literary or historical like Colonial Williamsburg and the history of herb gardening. The Tropical Dome opened in February 1966 and features nearly 1,000 species of plants including banana, papaya, ackee, guava, avocado, and cacao. A rare curare vine can also be found growing here. The arid dome opened in November 1967 and displays a wide variety of plants from the Americas and Africa. The African section contains the unusual Welwitschia plant which has only two continuously growing leaves and may live for a thousand years. Mitchell Park is one of the six original Milwaukee parks created by the first park commission. It started as 5 acres on Milwaukee’s South Side and now the total area is over 60 acres. There is also a monument marking the site of an early trading post built by Jacques Vieau. Vieau was a settler and a fur trader who later became father-in-law to the founder of Milwaukee, Solomon Juneau.
I chose to photograph Ascension Church next because of its history and cultural diversity. In 1852 ten families organized the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church in the south side carpenter shop of Samuel Gabrielson. After purchasing a lot for $150 on the northwest corner of Scott and Reed the congregation built its first church with their hands. They couldn’t imagine how the church would evolve into the big city church it is today. It is a church of ethnic diversity including both Hmong and Hispanic congregations. Rev. Gustav Stearns became the pastor in 1899 and served the congregation for the next 35 years. It was during Rev. Stearns pastorate that the church changed its name to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension. Worship services in Spanish began in the early 1970’s, and in the 1980’s Hmong Christians approached Ascension for a place to worship and conduct Bible study. In the 1990’s outreach to the Hmong and Hispanic community was a focus of the ministry and made Ascension a multicultural congregation.
Loyola Academy which started in 1964 began when the Archdiocese of Milwaukee gave John Maurice $6,000 to open a center for the Latino population. El Centro Hispano Americano became the first non-profit organization in Milwaukee to serve Latinos. In 1990 the Council for the Spanish Speaking (the center changed its name after being incorporated) purchased the former St. Ignatius of Loyola Church and grounds. Loyola Academy High School sponsored by MPS began serving 30 at risk youth. In 2000 the new Infant and Toddler Center at Loyola began operation. In summary I have been doing a lot of research on the history of Milwaukee and learning about the South Side and its cultural diversity was extremely enlightening. I knew that it began as a Polish community and transitioned into a Hispanic community but I did not know about the large population of Hmong people. I tried in my photo essay to show some of the cultural diversity of the South Side. I would have liked to have taken more pictures of things I learned about after I wrote this paper, like the landmark for Vieau’s trading post. I also would have liked to have been able to save my work on the Mac and spend more time with I movie and reedit and polish up some things on my slide show. I was also unable to add a soundtrack which would have been nice. Overall I am satisfied with my representation of the South Side of Milwaukee and Loyola Academy and its students

Loyola Academy

I went to the South Side to finish my film project and even though it was raining I captured some nice pictures of the Domes and the South Side neighborhood. I also learned some interesting history about a few of the local churches. I talked to Mr. Gonzales and we will meet with him in two weeks.

WWE (1st Assignment)

I am a big fan of pro wrestling and the WWE. I have posted some images of the wrestlers and the good work they do. They have community programs including contributing to toys for tots and reading programs for young people. I believe the most impressive event they host is the tribute to the troops where they go overseas and perform for the soldiers protecting our country.

Film Literary Exercise

The two images I chose are Margaret Bourke-White’s “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” and Gordon Parks “American Gothic”. I chose “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” because of the stark reality of the imagery and the sharp contrast of the whiteness of the American family with a white dog included framed against the African-Americans standing in line waiting for relief. The billboard proclaims the World’s Highest Standard of Living, but I don’t believe the African-American’s standing in line would agree. The billboard’s slogan suggests the American Way is for the white family and does not include the black family. There is a clear line drawn in the framing of the image between the joy of the white family and the despair of the African-Americans waiting for relief. The focus is clearly on the white family and not on the African-Americans. The angle is also important as the white family is shown above the line of the African-Americans. The costumes are also significant as the white family is dressed affluently probably middle class or upper middle class and the African-Americans are all wearing long dark colored coats. Ronald Takaki in “A Different Mirror” quotes that the black worker was the “surplus man, the last to be hired and the first to be fired.” Blacks faced starvation and reluctantly turned to public relief.

Margaret Bourke-White was a celebrated photographer in the 1930’s; she succeeded in a male-dominated profession and was the first photographer for Fortune Magazine in 1930. She also captured an unforgettable image of the Fort Peck Dam that was used in the premier issue of Life magazine. Margaret Bourke-White was an amazing woman; she was the first woman to fly on a combat bombing mission during WWII and was fearless taking pictures of the German bombing of Moscow. Bourke-White captured images of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp during WWII bearing witness to one of history’s most barbaric slaughters. Bourke-White also blended commerce and art in an advertisement for the “Russell Birdsall & Ward Bolt & Nut Company. Her photographic style can be described as the f/64 group that Edward Weston and Ansel Adams made famous. Most of her photographs are a gelatin silver print. In 1937 when Bourke-White did “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” it became a symbolic image of the Great Depression. The happy white family oblivious to the line of African-Americans waiting for relief is about to figuratively run them over in their brand new car.

The second image I chose was Gordon Parks “American Gothic” I found this image to be provocative because of the way the American flag is framed in the background. Is this picture taken in 1942 the image we wish to convey during a time of war? The costume is also significant as it appears to be a uniform representing servitude. Gordon Parks later tells us it is a portrait of a government cleaning lady named Ella Watson. Parks used “American Gothic” to describe how he felt about America and Ella Watson’s position inside America. Richard Dyer would describe this as whiteness being evident in superiority without ever being shown in the picture. Ella Watson is not only in servitude to a white person but the entire white government. This is not only subjection by race alone but also by gender as some men believe that women are supposed to be holding a broom and a mop. Ronald Takaki in “A Different Mirror” discusses how the New Deal by Franklin Roosevelt was a new deal for the whites only and a raw deal for blacks. The National Recovery Administration or NRA which was established to protect black workers from discrimination in employment was often referred to as “Negroes Ruined Again” or “Negro Removal Act” by African-Americans. Ella Watson standing with an American flag in the background epitomized the disappointment in the Roosevelt Administration.

Gordon Parks was the youngest of 15 children and was told by a white teacher not to waste his families’ money on a college education because he would probably just wind up as a porter anyway. Parks just recently received his 45^th doctorate from Princeton University. When Parks was 16 and homeless he found a portfolio inside of a magazine documenting the living conditions of migrant workers. The portfolio inspired him to buy his first camera and use it as a weapon against poverty and racism. In 1941 Parks was the first photographer to receive a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation and started working for Roy Stryker at the photography section of the Farm Security Administration or FSA. The FSA was a part of the New Deal initiated by Franklin Roosevelt to combat poverty. The FSA planned to help poor farmers by purchasing their non productive land and placing them in group farms on better land for more efficient farming. The FSA was criticized by the Farm Bureau as an experiment in collectivizing agriculture. The FSA exists today as the Farmers Home Administration. The FSA hired Gordon Parks and others to report and document the plight of the poor farmer. It was at the FSA in Washington D.C. where Parks took his first professional photograph “American Gothic”. “American Gothic” was originally a painting by American artist Grant Wood. It is a depiction of a farmer and a woman standing in front of a farmhouse in Iowa. The man holds a pitchfork symbolizing hard labor and the woman’s colonial print apron suggests domesticity. It is as much of a symbol of the whiteness of America as Ella Watson is a symbol of the plight of African-Americans. During the Great Depression “American Gothic” by Wood became a symbol of the American spirit. The photograph of Ella Watson was a parody of the original “American Gothic” but still became an iconic symbol of America.

In conclusion I chose “American Gothic” by Gordon Parks and “At the Time of the Louisville Flood” by Margaret Bourke-White because they depict how the American Dream is usually a depiction of the whiteness of the nation and how it does not include all peoples. I believe they also depict the racial tension that still exists in America in the 21^st century. The images portrayed by Parks and Bourke-White are both timeless and reminders of our past before the Civil Rights Act. They are images to warn us of the dangers of stereotyping and labeling one race as superior and another as inferior. It is these images that I will use to remind me that racism still exists today and that only through understanding that we all are a part of the human race can we imagine living in a world without racism.

David Schiff

Film 150

10/10/09

Media Literacy Exercise

"American Gothic" by Gordon Parks

"At the Time of the Louisville Flood" by Margaret Bourke-White

"American Gothic" by Grant Wood

Screenshot of Green Acres

Gordon Parks

Loyola

I went to Loyola Academy for orientation on Thursday and meet some really great students. I am looking forward to returning probably next week. The teacher Mr. Gonzalez is really nice and it should be fun working with him. I was really nervous I personally graduated high school in '82 and have only been in a high with my son who is 22 now.