Jeanine Michna-Bales

Jeanine Michna-Bales (born 1971) is an American artist who works primarily through photographic essays. Her projects blend documentary and fine art, research and history, examining forgotten, overlooked or invisible aspects of American history and contemporary socio-politics. She has often juxtaposed evocative landscape photographs and historical re-enactments with primary source documents such as maps, news clippings, government materials and artifacts in order to bring to life specific moments, experiences, places and eras from the past. ''New York Times'' writer and cultural historian Maurice Berger called her project on the Underground Railroad evocative and consequential in its visual portrayal of history through the eyes of an individual: "Her photographs are dark, atmospheric and haunting … They evoke both a sense of the adventure and peril of this journey, one that would have dire consequences if unsuccessful."

Michna-Bales's work has been exhibited at institutions including the Alexandria Black History Museum, Hunter Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Portland Art Museum, and Open Society Foundations. It belongs to the permanent collections of the Duke University Archive of Documentary Arts, Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Phillips Collection, among others. Her books include ''Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad'' (2017), ''Standing Together: Inez Milholland’s Final Campaign for Women’s Suffrage'' (2021), and ''Countdown: A Visual Exploration of the Cold War's Opposing Architecture'' (co-authored with Adam Reynolds, 2022). Provided by Wikipedia