Perimeter, by Kevin Miyazaki

In 2012, Kevin Miyazaki, a native of Milwaukee, spent 18 days traveling the perimeter of Lake Michigan, photographing the lake and the people who love it.  The result was an exhibit at Marquette University's Haggerty Museum of Art, and now the book Perimeter: A Contemporary Portrait of Lake Michigan.

The book consists of beautifully done portraits of people Miyazaki met along the way, and pictures of the water.  There is beauty in the simplicity of his work.  The portraits, which he took in a portable studio, reflect a wide variety of people and faces.  But he could have gotten a bunch of people in one place to line up at one studio to take their pictures.  There is no sense of place.  The water pictures show a variety of place, but uniformity in composition.  Sky on the top half, water on the bottom, the horizon right in the middle.  In the sameness, Miyazaki shows the many faces of the lake.  At the same time, he could have reached a similar result had he stayed in one spot and taken photographs at different times of day and in different weather. . . .

Lake Michigan lovers who love the sights of the lake will be disappointed in this book.  It's not a travel book, and does not feature the many interesting land formations, the lakeside architecture, or the animal and plant life of the lake.  Just the water.  And a random collection of people.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!