John Raymond Mireles

View exhibition photos here.

“For the past 28 years, I’ve been engaged with visual art—first professionally as a commercial photographer and more recently as a practicing artist.

I began my career as a photographer not longer after graduating from UC Santa Barbara. Despite the fact that I had no formal training nor arts education, I taught myself the skills necessary to make a living as a commercial photographer, from using artificial lighting to producing extensive shoots both in and out of the studio. In time, my magazine and small commercial shoots led to large scale assignments from advertising agencies across the country. These in turn led to industry recognition such as Gold and Silver awards from the Creative Show (1997, 1999, 2002) and awards from the Communication Arts Photo Annual (1996, 1998, 1999), the most prestigious show in commercial photography.

Following the dot-com crash of 2000, I exited advertising work in favor of personal commissions for wedding and portrait clients. In 2013, after two decades of successfully producing commercial photography, I decided to forego further client initiated work and commit myself to narrative-driven documentary projects that spoke to my mission of social engagement. That year, I traveled to North Dakota where I tested my photographic skills amidst the gold rush atmosphere of the Bakken oil fields. 

Addressing my own family history, in 2014, I traveled to New Mexico to photograph a series that I entitled In the Land of My Father. Using portraits of people and landscapes of the Tularosa Valley, I strove to connect with the story of my ancestors—whose history in the region dates back to the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico in 1692.

2016 proved to be a turning point. Denied by several MFA programs to which I’d applied, I redoubled my efforts to learn and practice my art. First, I committed to expanding my Neighbors series into a project with nationwide significance. Second, I shifted from a documentary perspective to a more conceptual approach focused on individual works. Finally, I decided to create for myself an extended residency in New York City where I could learn from and experience firsthand contemporary art at its center. 

Following up on these resolutions, I accomplished the following:

  • From March 2016 to February of 2018, I traveled to all 50 states to create uniformly lit portraits of Americans from all strata of American life. To realize my Neighbors Project, I spent months on the road and criss-crossed the United States from corner to corner.
  • In 2017, I produced my series entitled Abandoned, a photographic survey of derelict bicycles taken from and returned to the streets of New York City.
  • In 2017, I received my first major commission: a solo exhibition at the Anchorage Museum of Art. I created portraits of Anchorage residents and then exhibited them within the interior of the museum, on the glass facade of the museum and on a fence in a lower-income community served by the museum.
  • In 2018, I opened my first solo New York gallery show, Surreptitious, at the Storefront Project gallery. For this exhibition of street photography, I combined the gallery installed work with portfolios set in public locations.
  • In 2018, with permission from the City of New York, I installed 86 portraits from my Neighbors series along 1/4 mile of sidewalk on Houston Street in the East Village. Hundreds of thousands of viewers experienced the work and both the NY Times and The Guardian included it in their top ten list of US public art projects.
  • In 2018, I fulfilled a commission to install twenty-five 12 foot high portraits on the exterior windows of the Bank of Oklahoma building in downtown Oklahoma City.
  • in 2018, I publicly installed forty-one 4×5 foot portraits of Mexican-Americans in Logan Heights, San Diego in celebration of Chicano Park Day. Included among them was a portrait of my 87 year old father, shirtless and lifting weights.
  • In 2018, I fulfilled a commission from the City of Surprise, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) and the WHAM Arts Center to install 115 large-scale portraits in multiple indoor and outdoor locations within a historically Mexican-American neighborhood of the city.
  • In 2018, I produced and installed works from my #falseidolworship series on walls, utility boxes and storefronts around New York City. This project is ongoing.

By experimenting with nontraditional exhibition spaces and formats, my work has been viewed by millions of viewers in multiple locations across the country. Everything I have done to date has been entirely self-directed. My focus and discipline have been honed by my many years of successfully meeting the demands of clients, collaborators and my own artistic needs. I’ve also worked to overcome my formal arts education shortcomings through personal study and direct engagement with art in all forms through visits to museums, galleries and artists’ studios from Los Angeles to Marfa to New York and many points in between. 

On the other hand, my academic background in psychology – specifically, social cognition – has proved eminently useful as I’ve navigated the social spaces of creating and exhibiting work. So too have my years of photography business experience enabled me to successfully propose, plan, and execute large scale projects in association with corporate, governmental and nonprofit organizations.

I’ve also worked hard to share my hard-earned lessons with others. In 1997, I created and taught a photography program at the Monarch School, a charter high school for homeless students. In 2001, I served as the founding member and first board chair of the San Diego chapter of the American Photographic Artists, a tax exempt organization devoted to the education and empowerment of freelance photographers. 

Since then, I’ve written and published three books on the practice of photography and lectured for photographic trade groups across the country. I also served as an advocate for the artistic community via my service on the board of the College Area Business Improvement District (2007-2010) and as a publicly elected member of the Crossroads Redevelopment Committee (2007-2010). 

As one experienced in the intersections of art, commerce and politics, I’m uniquely positioned and eager to share my knowledge with pupils and peers alike. I’m driven to create and exhibit socially impactful work. That said, I will always be a practitioner of the arts.”

Panel Discussion with John Raymond Mireles, Martha Matinez-Bravo, and Eva Gomez on November 7th at 1pm.

Studio Channel Islands will be hosting an online panel discussion featuring John Raymond Mireles, Martita Martinez-Bravo, and Eva Gomez on Saturday, November 7th at 1pm.

Photographer John Raymond Mireles has been on a three-year journey that has taken him to all 50 states and introduced him to more than 3,000 “Neighbors” as he has wound his way through small towns and large cities creating over-sized photographic portraits of the diverse faces that make up this country. These portraits are currently on view in the gallery at Studio Channel Islands.

Martita Martinez-Bravo is the Executive Director of the Social Justice Fund for Ventura County and has worked with many nonprofits in Ventura County. The SJFVC promotes fairness, equity and human rights, and strengthens social justice by empowering community members to create lasting change. When John visited Camarillo in November of last year, Martita worked with him to bring local communities to the project. 

Eva Gomez, Director of Annual Giving & Special Gifts at Cal State University Channel Islands, will talk about the award winning work the University does to serve the whole community and how they work with non-profits to make themselves available to their neighbors.