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Michael Hyatt Bio
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Photography Bio

My interest in photography began in 1968 after seeing the work of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, W. Eugene Smith 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 Center was exhibiting box sets by Edward Weston, Paul Strand and Ansel Adams at the time. My limited edition 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. In April 2008, the book, in the category of Art, was an award winner in the annual Eric Hoffer Independent Book Publishing Award competition. The book's cover photograph was included in Photographer's Forum Annual - Best of 2009. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona purchased four photographs included in Migrant Artifacts.

Also in 2007, Geographer Juanita Sundberg and I were awarded a grant from the University of British Columbia Hampton Research Fund Grant titled "Documenting New Cultural Landscapes of Immigration in the United States-Mexico Borderlands" 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, an exhibition at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Photography which ran October through December 2010.

Recent work includes images in the portfolio Good News in Mexico and Street Photography 2008-2015. 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 2016. I continue to document humanitarian efforts in the Arizona desert. In addition, calendars featuring my photographs have been self-published periodically since 1982. The 2016 Street Photography Calendar & Dates of Photographic Interest features twelve winning photographs, including one of mine, from the Los Angeles Center of Photography's 2015 Street Photography competition.

Since 1969, my work has appeared in newspaper and magazine articles and reviews, Gallery 1331 calendars, music collections, catalogs, on postcards, in the Lucky 13 Box Set of X Postcards, and in the 1986 documentary film about X titled The Unheard Music. Books that have included my photographs are Beyond and Back - The Story of X by f Stop Fitzgerald and Chris Morris (cover image), The Pleasures of Jazz by Leonard Feather, Tough Company by Tom Russell and Charles Bukowski, The Practice of Global Citizenship by Luis Cabrera (cover image), A Voice in the Box - My Life in Radio by Bob Edwards and Under the Big Black Sun by John Doe with Tom DeSavia. Numerous one-man and group photography shows in Arizona, Mexico, California, Maryland, Nebraska, Montana, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Colorado and Ireland have featured my work, including the exhibition A World Separated by Borders at Museo de Arte de Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico March - June 2016. Three trips to Cuba since 2012 have produced winning photographs in Street Photography competitions in Los Angeles and Italy.

Books that feature my photographs:

  • The Practice of Global Citizenship by Luis Cabrera
  • 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
  • Under the Big Black Sun by John Doe with Tom DeSavia
  • Along the Migrant Trail: A Borderland Portrait

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
  • Multi Media Art Show at The Punk Museum in Los Angeles: "13 large photographs of X from 1980 - 1983" / December 15, 2012 - February 2013
  • Group Show: "Immigration Awareness" exhibition at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ / March-April 2013
  • Group Show: "Historias Inmigrantes" exhibition featuring my colaboration with Los Angeles artist Mike Mollett & our multi-media artwork "Migrant World - Artifacts of the Displaced on the Social Divide" at Raices Taller Gallery, Tucson, AZ / July-August 2013
  • Group Show: "Shared Vistas" exhibition at the Florence Quatar Gallery - Southwest University of Visual Arts, Tucson, AZ / October-November 2013
  • Group Show: "The Documented Border" - University of Arizona Library Special Collections, Tucson / October-December 2014
  • Group Show: “Dia de los Muertos” - Central School Gallery, Bisbee AZ / November 2014
  • Group Show: "The Tucson Photographers" - Contreras Gallery, Tucson, AZ / March 2015
  • One-Man Show: "X the Band" - The Darkroom Gallery, Los Angeles, CA / April-June 2015
  • Group show: Los Angeles Center of Photography's 2nd Annual Members Juried Exhibition:  DNJ Gallery - Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA / July - September 2015
  • Group show: Los Angeles Center of Photography's 2nd Annual Street Shooting Around the Globe: LACP - 1515 Wilcox Ave., Los Angeles, CA / February - March 2016
  • Group show: A World Separated by Borders: Museo de Arte de Sonora - Hermosillo, Mexico / March - September 2016
  • Two-Man Show: Retrospective Portraits - Yun Gee Park Gallery, Tucson, AZ / October 2016 - April 2017
  • Group show: The Struggle For Human Rights in Latin America 1967 to 2017 – West Chester Museums & Special Collections, West Chester University - West Chester, PA / April 2017- February 2018
  • Group show: Photo Independent 2017 & Fathom Gallery - Juried Street Photography Competition - Los Angeles, CA / April - May 2017
  • Group show: CA 101 2017 - Juried Contemporary Art Exhibition at 219 Avenue I, Redondo Beach, CA / June 2017
  • Group Show: X - 40 Years of Punk in LA @ The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles / October 2017-March 2018
  • Group Show: The Migrant Quilt Project at Pimeria Alta Historical Museum, Nogales,AZ / February 2018
  • One-Man Show: Cuba – Contrast, Mystery & Paradox at Galeria Senita/Art de la Vida, Tucson, AZ / February-March 2018
  • Group Show: Beyond The Border Wall – The Migrant Quilt Project at New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Mass / May-July 2018
  • One-Man Show: Migrant Artifacts – Magic & Loss in the Sonoran Desert, at Hudson Museum – Collins Center For the Arts, University of Maine – Orono, Maine / May-June 2018
  • Group Show: Take Nothing For Granted – Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery - Center for the Arts, Pima College, Tucson AZ, October-December 2019
  • 50th Anniversary Exhibition: Galeria Senita – Art de la Vida, Tucson AZ, March-June 2020
  • Group Show: Picturing Resistance, curated by Ken Light – Art Intersection – Gilbert, AZ, September 10 – October 22, 2022
  • One-Man Show - Crossroads: The Streets and Music of Los Angeles 1969 – 1981 – The Andrew Smith Gallery - Tucson, AZ 2/11/23 – 4/8/23

Gallery Representation

Photography Collections:

  • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • University of Arizona Special Collections
  • Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona
  • Arizona History Museum
  • West Chester University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology
  • Numerous private collections

Research Publications:

  • Harold Jones Interviews – Biography, Light Gallery History & Light Gallery Calendars 1973 – 1975

Music Collections that Include My Photographs:

  • Rhino Records reissue of X albums: Los Angeles, Wild Gift, Under The Big Black Sun, More Fun in The New World, Ain't Love Grand & The Best: Make The Music Go Bang!
  • Rounder Records: Merle Haggard's Train Whistle Blues
  • Rhino Records: Testament - The Blasters Complete Slash Recordings
  • AMT Records: Mercy on The Arizona Migrant Trail
  • Border Songs: a 2CD collection of music & spoken word

Conceptual Art

  • Permanent Collection – Migrant World by Mike Mollett and Michael Hyatt at Arizona History Museum

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
  • Borderlands Theater Community Arts / Activism Award 2012-2013
  • Los Angeles Center of Photography 1st Annual Street Photography Competition Winner 2015
  • Los Angeles Center of Photography 2nd Annual Juried Exhibition Competition Winner 2015
  • 2nd Place Winner - Los Angeles Center of Photography 2nd Annual Juried Street Shooting Around the Globe Contest 2016, juried by Matt Stuart
  • Winner – Social Documentary Network’s 10th Anniversary Competition & Exhibition – Bronx Documentary Center, New York October 2018. Portfolio of 30 "Along the Migrant Trail" photographs at SDN, Social Documentary Network.

Grants:

  • Awarded a University of British Columbia Hampton Research Fund Grant titled Documenting New Cultural Landscapes of Immigration in the United States-Mexico Borderlands with Geographer Juanita Sundberg in April 2007.
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