Beyond the Camera: A Conversation with Melinda McDaniel

Abstract

Emerging artist Melinda McDaniel subverts traditional photographic materials and manipulates social media. She is as calmly Apollonian in her execution as she is wildly Dionysian in her method; McDaniel delights in being a perfectionist and at the same nine a violent rule breaker. Her practice is one that embraces what writer and independent curator Chris Wiley calls photography's repressed aspects the support that holds the image, and techniques used in the process of its creation. (1) Process art and minimalism, especially Eva Hesse's, Donald Judd's, and Bruce Nauman's legacies, inform her approach to the medium. McDaniel began working in photography at Florida State University, where she studied with Robert Fichter who, according to the artist, in terms of what was possible as opposed to a more academic, canonical presentation of the medium. Next, she earned her in 2004 at the Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus. Ohio, where she worked with Ardine Nelson and Tony Mendoza, among others. Nelson's free-form Alternative Camera Class particularly influenced McDaniel's thinking about the medium. Working as a project assistant for Ann Hamilton, who also teaches at OSU, McDaniel was considering art in terms of installation and sculpture (2) After moving east in 2005, McDaniel worked as a graphic designer and project manager for sculptor and conceptual artist Jenny Holzer in Hoosick Falls. New York, and also taught a rank of photography courses including introductory, intermediate, color, digital, and media studio imaging at Union College, the College of Saint Rose, the State University of New York at Albany, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Until recently, she was the Visual Resources Curator at the College of Saint Rose, designing and overseeing the development of a digital collection. She now manages and maintains the digital printing facilities at Russell Sage College in Albany. Participating in four to eight exhibitions a year since 2009, McDaniel has shown widely throughout New York State and beyond. This year alone she had three New York City exhibitions, at BRIC Arts in Brooklyn, and at TNC Gallery and Milavec Hakimi Gallery, both in Manhattan. Venues showing McDaniel's work during the last four years include the Fulton Street Gallery and the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, the Opalka Gallery of Russell Sage College and the University Art Museum in Albany, the Saratoga County Arts Council in Saratoga, the Mandeville Gallery at Union College in Schenectady, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. The artist resides in Troy, New York, it self a new mecca for young artists. Troy is home to the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, or EMPAC, where Laurie Anderson is currently a visiting artist, and the Arts Center of the Capital Region, which has a regional locus, but also showcases artists from all over the United States. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] McDaniel met with rue on June 6, 2012, in Albany, New York, to discuss her background in photography, including her influences, process, and attitude toward the medium to which she is deeply committed. LUCY BOWDITCH: What was your introduction to photography? MELINDA MCDANIEL: I was introduced to photography when I was a high school yearbook photographer. So, when I went to Florida State University. I thought I was going to be a photojournalist. Then I took Beginning Photography in the Art Department. And I did horribly! I actually have all my photographs, prints, and negatives. I use them in my own classes to let students know this is where I started. LB: Considering the inauspicious beginning, what stimulated you to carry on? MM: While I was an undergrad, I noticed a woman who was making fabulous, giant, mural-sized black-and-white prints. Can you show me your process? I asked, and she did. So, I went from making really horrible 8 x 10 prints to the biggest things I could. …