Michael Hower is a photographer from Central Pennsylvania where he resides with his wife and two boys. His experience with digital photography began five years ago. Over that time, he has amassed a resume of over a hundred exhibitions and publications. His work has been featured in shows at the Pennsylvania State Museum, PA; Biggs Museum of Art, DE; Masur Museum of Art, LA; Marshall University, WV; and the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, OH. He had a solo show this past fall at the Rehoboth Art League entitled “Abandoned Places.” This series of photographs examines the abandoned prison cells of Eastern State Penitentiary. The Penitentiary subscribed to a theory of rehabilitation that proscribed confinement and a lack of interaction with other inmates. This ran counter to the prevailing system in the United States at the time where harsh physical punishment was the norm. Ideas of church and religious experience are embodied in the building and served as a guide for how prisoners should be rehabilitated: hallways looked like that of a church; low doorways required one to bow, seek penance from a greater power; a single small skylight lit each cell, a proverbial “eye of God.”
Oates has B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design, an M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a Fulbright Fellow for study at Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. Oates has had solo shows at Susan Eley Fine Art, The Central Park Arsenal Gallery, The Center for Book Arts, Real Art Ways, Artemisia Gallery, The Brooklyn Public Library and the MTA Arts & Design Light Box series at 42nd Street, NYC. Oates has been part of group shows in NYC at The Pen and Brush Gallery, Metaphor Contemporary Art, NYOC Gallery, 440 Gallery, Nurture Art Gallery, Momenta Art, Associated Gallery, Susan Eley Fine Art and at Denise Bibro Fine Art. Works on paper by Oates are in numerous public collections including the Harvard University Libraries, The Brooklyn Museum Artists’ Book Collection, The Walker Art Center Libraries, The Smithsonian Libraries and the Franklin Furnace Archive at MoMA, NYC.
A.C. Koch works almost entirely in black and white, because colorblindness predisposes him to see the world in contrasts. Architecture and streetscapes offer an interplay of shapes and textures that can create a great sense of depth and drama in an ordinary scene. His photography was recently featured in a Westword article during a show of black-and-white prints at St. Mark’s Coffeehouse in Denver, CO. More of Koch’s photography can be found on Instagram @henry_iblis, and his photo blog: invisiblepony.blogspot.com.
Jamie Derkenne is interested in photographing landscapes of solastalgia. The seas around Lord Howe Island off Australia’s East Coast are full of coral reefs, the most southerly part of the coral reefs that further north make the Great Barrier Reef. Lord Howe Island’s reefs are about the only ones off Australia not in imminent risk of dying because of global warming.
Featuring: This summer double issue features stimulating and provocative works of poetry, flash fiction, short nonfiction, and photography by Virginia Barrett, Mark Belair, Arno Bohlmeijer, Mark Burke, Sharon Chmielarz, Jamie Derkenne, Stuart Forrest, Marc Frazier, James Grabill, John Horvath Jr, Michael Hower, Rebecca Irene, Philip Kienholz, A.C. Koch, Tom Lavazzi, DJ Lee, Brittny Meredith, Karla Linn Merrifield, Wendy Miles, Daniel Edward Moore, Leah Oates, Andy Posner, Sheree La Puma, Grethel Ramos, D. D. Renforth, Jack Ridl, Betsy Rupp, Gerard Sarnat, Chavonn Williams Shen, Gary Singh, Dalena Storm, Teresa Sutton, Patrick Sylvain, Jeri Theriault, and Jamie Wagman.
