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My interest in photography began in 1968 after seeing the work of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Henri Cartier-Bresson. This led to a very active eleven-year period doing street photography in Boston and Los Angeles. Portfolios from this period focus on the Italian neighborhood in Boston, and the residents and transients in, and nearby, the Chapman Hotel at the corner of 5th & Wall Street - Los Angeles.
In 1979 I spent a month photographing in Ireland. While there I met the all-female
Irish punk rock band The Boy Scouts, which inspired me to pursue the Los Angeles
music scene. Within a month of my return I began documenting the performances
and backstage activities of the prominent punk rock and roots rock bands of
the era, including The Plugz, X, The Blasters and Los Lobos. The fascinating
and visually stimulating audience for this music was also documented in Los
Angeles and during two national tours with X.
Between 1986, when I moved to Arizona, and 2002, I photographed a variety of subject matter. Then in October 2002 I began documenting the efforts of Humane Borders, the volunteer organization that places water stations in the desert to help prevent migrant deaths, and lobbies for more humane border policy. A year later I began photographing the humanitarian work of Samaritans, and then the efforts of the No More Deaths coalition when it formed. During this period I was invited to photograph Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument west of Tucson on the U.S./Mexico border for the Desert Places book series published by the University of Arizona Press. In August 2004 the book Organ Pipe – Life On The Edge was published. It is exclusively illustrated with fifteen of my photographs, mostly landscapes and wildlife. Publication of the book led to a commission from the University of Arizona Special Collections, associated with The Center For Creative Photography, to produce a limited edition box set of photographs. The box set, titled Along
The Migrant Trail, contains thirteen gelatin silver prints sized 4" X 5" displayed in a jewel box with a cover sleeve, list of photographs, and a booklet describing the work illustrated with three more photographs.
In 2007 Great Circle Books in Los Angeles published a monograph of my border work titled Migrant Artifacts: Magic & Loss in the Sonoran Desert. It was an award winner in the annual Eric Hoffer Independent Book Publishing competition
in 2008. Also in 2007 Geographer Juanita Sundberg and I received a grant from the University of British Columbia to produce Faith, Fencing & Fate: New Cultural Landscapes of Migration in the United States-Mexico Borderlands. An exhibit of the photographs was presented at the Liu Institute for Global Issues in April, 2010. Ten of the photographs were then included in La Frontera - The Cultural Impact of Mexican Migration, a show at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Photography which ran October - December 2010. Recent work includes images in the portfolio Good News in Mexico and Street Photography 2008 - 2011. The Alamos, Sonora International Photo Festival is currently featuring 10 of my recent images from the series Mines, Miners & Their Towns on tour in Sonora and Arizona through 2013.
Since 1969 my photographs have appeared in newspaper and magazine articles
and reviews, calendars, music collections, catalogs, on postcards, in the Lucky
13 Box Set of X Postcards, in the 1986 documentary film about X titled The
Unheard Music, and in the books Beyond and Back – The Story of X by
f Stop Fitzgerald and Chris Morris, The
Pleasures of Jazz by Leonard Feather, and Tough Company by
Tom Russell and Charles Bukowski. Numerous one-man and group photography
shows in Arizona, California, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, Colorado and
Ireland have included my work.
Locations in Tucson where my photographs, postcards, calendars and books can be purchased include Tucson Museum of Art, Bon, Antigone Books, Yikes and Hotel Congress. My photographic works are also
available for purchase on this website by PayPal, credit card or mail order. For more info, check out the Photography
section of my site.
Books that feature my photographs:
- Migrant Artifacts: Magic & Loss in the Sonoran Desert by Michael Hyatt
- Organ Pipe: Life on the Edge by Carol Ann Bassett / Photographs
by Michael Hyatt
- The Pleasures of Jazz by Leonard Feather
- Tough Company by Tom Russell and Charles Bukowski
- Beyond and Back: The Story of X by f Stop Fitzgerald and Chris Morris
Exhibitions:
- One-man show at Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA, 1977
- Fourth Annual Cal Arts Open Photography Competition - "Photo As Document," group
show of winners - Cal Arts, Valencia, CA, April/May 1978
- Group show "Views and Visions" at The Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO,
1988
- Group For Photographic Intentions (GPI) Repro" and "Small Exposures" shows
at Gallery 31, Tucson, AZ, 1989
- Two man show "Election Day - Bandon, Ireland" at Gallery 31, Tucson,
AZ, 1990
- GPI "Big Vision" show, Tucson, AZ, 1990
- Group shows at Raw Gallery: "Al Perry's Pop Art & Consumerism" - 1999
and "Where the Wild Things Are," Tucson, AZ, 2000
- One Man Retrospective Show "Portraits" at the Gallery at Hotel Congress,
in Association With Elizabeth Cherry Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ, December,
2000 - January, 2001
- "Lucky 13 - X, the band" Show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles,
CA, October 2001
- Lost & Found - Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services Gallery, Baltimore,
MD, October - December 2003
- Group Show - Metroform, Ltd, Tucson, AZ, November - December, 2003
- Hot Shoe Salon, Tucson, AZ, 2004 and 2005
- Day of the Dead Season Show - Obsidian Gallery, Tucson AZ, September - November 2005
- Group Show "Captured Time" - Raices Taller 222 Gallery, Tucson AZ, October 2005
- Group Show "Dia de los Muertos" - Raices Taller 222 Gallery, Tucson AZ, November 2005
- Group Show "Myths & Legends" - Raices taller 222 Gallery, Tucson, AZ,
January 2006
- Group Invitational "Persona" - Obsidian Gallery, Tucson, AZ, June/July
2006
- Group Invitational "Alter Ego" - Obsidian Gallery, Tucson, AZ, July -
September 2006
- Group Invitational "El Dia de los Muertos" - Obsidian Gallery, Tucson,
AZ, September - November 2006
- One-man show "Migrant Artifacts: Magic & Loss in the Sonoran Desert"
- A & I Photographic Services Gallery, Hollywood, CA, May/June 2007
- One-man show "Migrant Artifacts: Magic & Loss in the Sonoran Desert" -
Bohemia Artisans Emporium, Tucson, AZ, June/July 2007
- Group Invitational "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Obsidian Gallery, Tucson, AZ, June - September 2007
- Group Show: "Day of the Dead" exhibition – Obsidian Gallery, Tucson, AZ, September – November 2007
- Group Show: "Meeting the Mystery: Themes on Impermanence" Exhibition at Prescott College - Tucson, AZ - October - December 2007
- Group Show: "The Heart's Path; Border Art and Artifacts from the Migrant Trail" - El Ojito Springs Center of Creativity, Tucson, AZ, October 2007 - February 2008
- One-man Show: "Day of the Dead" exhibition at The Arizona Historical Society's Sosa-Carrillo-Freemont House, Tucson, AZ, November 2007 – January 2008
- One-man Show: "Along The Migrant Trail" exhibition at El Ojito Springs Center of Creativity, Tucson, AZ, March – April 2008
- Group Show: "AZ Asphalt" Photographic exhibition at PanTerra Gallery, Bisbee, AZ, March – April 2008
- Group Show: "Heroes and Gods" exhibition with my focus on Cesar Chavez and The United Farm Workers California Proposition 14 Campaign in 1976 at Raices Taller Gallery, Tucson, AZ March – April 2008
- Group Show: "Summer Pleasures" exhibition by Dinnerware Artspace at Hotel Congress, Tucson, AZ, July 2008
- Group Show: "Big Ideas SMALL FRAMES" exhibition at Dinnerware Artspace, Tucson, AZ, June - July 2008
- Group Show - "Splash" Exhibition at Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, June 2008
- Group Show: "Life on the Edge" exhibition at Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, August 2008
- Group Show: "Acts of Self Confrontation" exhibition at Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, August - September 2008
- Group Show: "Basically Simple" exhibition at Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, October - November 2008
- Group Show: "Go Boldly" exhibition at Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, November - December 2008
- Group Show: Third Annual International Photo Festival in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, "Our People of Northern Mexico & Southwestern USA," November 2008 - January 2009
- Group Show: "Celebration of Line" exhibition at Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ, December 2008 - January 2009
- Group Show: "Antojitos" (Little Cravings) A small works exhibition at Raices Taller Gallery, Tucson, AZ, December 2008 – January 2009
- One Man Show: "Migrant Artifacts" at True World Gallery, Joshua Tree, CA, January - February 2009
- One Man Show: "Bandon Town Hall - European Parliament Election June 7, 1979," Bandon Ireland Library, Bandon, Ireland, April - June 2009
- Group Show: Fourth Annual International Photo Festival in Alamos, Sonora - Mexico, "El Camino Real," November - December 2009
- One Man Show: "Faith, Fencing & Fate: New Cultural Landscapes of Immigration in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands,"
University of British Columbia - Liu Institute for Global Issues Gallery, April - July 2010
- Group Show: El Dia de los Muertos, Contreras Gallery - Tucson, October 2010
- Group Show: All Souls Photography Exhibition, 455 Gallery - Tucson, October 2010
- Group Show: Fifth Annual International Photo Festival in Alamos, Sonora - Mexico, "Flora of the Desert," November - December 2010
- Group Show: La Frontera - The Cultural Impact of Mexican Migration, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College - Chicago, October - December 2
- Group Show: "Legados" (Legacies) annual exhibition tribute to Cesar Chavez at Raices Taller Gallery, Tucson, AZ March - April 2011
- Group Show: "Tucson Shot Rock" - rock photographs by Tucson photographers at Pop-Up Gallery, Tucson, AZ - October 2011
- Group Show: Sixth Annual International Photo Festival in Alamos, Sonora - Mexico, "Mines, Miners & Their Towns," November - December 2011. Travels Sonora & Arizona through October 2013.
Collections:
- Numerous private collections
- University of Arizona Special Collections
- Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona
Awards:
- Honorable Mention, Fourth Annual Cal Arts Open Photography Competition - "Photo
As Document," juried by Gary Winogrand - Cal Arts, Valencia, CA - April/May
1978
- Migrant Artifacts: Magic & Loss in the Sonoran Desert is an award winner in the category of Art in the annual Eric Hoffer Independent Book Publishing Award competition - April 2008
Grants:
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