Profile of Melvin Miller, Greensburg, Kansas, Summer, 2000, Larry Schwarm

Episode 88 Nov-2006, Sharyn Brooks Katzman, Docent I’m David Cateforis with another art minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. A tapestry of names, an Indian princess, an orange tiger - pictures, symbols and words cover the skin of the man in a photograph by Larry Schwarm. Better known for his photographs of prairie-renewing fires in the spring tallgrass of the Flint Hills, Schwarm's summer 2000 photograph of his tattooed neighbor, Melvin Miller, from the small community of Greensburg, Kansas shocks our senses. Miller is no handsome sailor or young Goth teenager flaunting his tattoos. His is the profile and upper torso of a heavy-set, middle aged, bald man with red-rimmed eyes. Twelve earrings pierce the perimeter of his ear as reminders of his twelve-step recovery program, were he tempted to return to drugs and alcohol. Memorializing old friends, fellow prison inmates and dead men, blue and black names stand out within the inked network covering every inch of his aging body like a mask or cloak. The photograph both repels and fascinates, prompting us to come ever closer to this branded body. It’s a stunning example of the photographer's art. With thanks to Sharyn Brooks Katzman for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.