The Many Projects of Michael Mergen

This past week, our American Studies class embarked on a day filled with adventure in Hyde Park and downtown Chicago. The trip began at Osaka Garden, a Japanese garden, in Hyde Park and continued with a trip to Court Theatere's Jitney play. The day ended with a visit to Colombia College's Museum of Contemporary Photography, which was very captivating. The museum featured the exhibit "Peripheral Views: States of America" which consisted of many diverse photographs that bring to light the issues of class, race, and power in the United States of America.( To read more about the exhibit click here) There were many different photographs ranging from pictures of classic board games like CandyLand to abandoned streets. The artist the intrigued me the most was Michael Mergen and his photographs of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I thought it was very interesting to see the many different locations and situations of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue across the country and it was even more interesting that the White Houe was not included within the photographs he took.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Tyron, PA

These photographs prompted me to research more about Michael Mergen, and I was very happy to look at his other photography projects. His other projects Vote, Naturalization, and Deliberate all convey the same themes as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. These projects take picture of the voting stations, immigration rooms, and jury deliberation rooms around the country to demonstrate the collision of private and public, consumer and citizen and the inappropriate relationship between space and voting. The photographs he takes are very thought provoking and opened my horizons on how different many places are around the United States are. Before this exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, I never thought about the relationship between voting and personal, private space, government and normal civilization, and the many themes that Michael Mergen brings forward in his photographs.

A Photo from Michael Mergen's project Vote. Early Voting in Las Vegas, NV

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