Eli Miller

 For my final project I wanted to do an investigative photography series about something I had been thinking about alot. I had been thinking mostly about the immense presence of alcohol in Appleton Wisconsin as the country's most drunk city. More specifically, I wanted to look at college avenue which is the main drag of bars that leads right up to the college Lawrence University. Over three sessions at different times of day, I walked down college avenue taking pictures of bar signs and intense displays of alcohol for sale as a way of collecting the evidence of this presence of alcohol. I am not making a moral statement here, instead I am showing the viewer a visceral retelling of Appleton's drinking culture. I have two parts to this project, the main part is called bar crawl where I experimented with the shutter speed of my camera to give the intoxicated, blurry look to the bars I passed. I also took pictures from a low and intimidating angle for thematic emphasis. My second p

       My time preparing and experiencing my classes art exhibit was experientially very new and exciting for me. We framed our works and showed initiative by all volunteering to do different things in order to see our exhibit up and running. I got to make the vinyl letters for the exhibition sign and see what goes into placing the different works appropriately on the wall. Inviting my friends to see the works as well as looking at everyone's photobook design choices was a big full circle moment for me. Looking at my two main photography inkjet prints in frames with their own labels next to them took them out of the hypothetical and into the art world which is the kind of thing you need to see as an amateur to start trusting your gut on artistic choices in the future. Overall, outside of my new media in art class I would love to finish projects to this same level even if I don't choose to present them in the end at all.        In preparation for this exhibitions, we had to do t