©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

John Raymond Mireles has a long legacy of telling stories, of creating significant portraits that speak to community and personal histories. Almost a decade ago, we featured his project, Neighbors, and its innovative installation. It was great to see Mireles’ new projects at the Photo NOLA Reviews in December. Today we feature his project, In Their Words, currently on exhibition at the San Diego Civic Center, City Administration Building and at the San Diego Library, Rancho Peñasquitos Branch.

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

John Raymond Mireles began his artistic career as a rock climber photographically documenting the lives and exploits of his fellow outdoor athletes. With rope, harness and camera, he traveled throughout the western US and France photographing seasoned climbers attempting some of the world’s most challenging routes.

Over time, Mireles traded in his climbing gear for larger format cameras and a photography studio in San Diego’s East Village. There he worked for a mix of magazines, agencies and San Diego based companies. After 25 years of serving clients, Mireles said goodbye to commercial work and shifted his focus to a socially and environmentally engaged contemporary art practice.

For his portrait project Neighbors, Mireles crisscrossed the country in his RV camper to photograph Americans in all 50 states. To document landscapes devastated in the terrifying wildfires of 2020, he trekked into blackened, still-smoldering landscapes
throughout the Western US. In addition to his cross-country treks, Mireles has exhibited his work widely— from the Anchorage Museum in Alaska to the streets of New York City. Both The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers included his New York
installation of Neighbors in their list of top public art exhibitions for 2018.

In 2021, he opened his interactive exhibition Disestablishment at the San Diego Museum of Art. For this collaborative exhibition, Mireles invited museum visitors to destroy his work to highlight the destruction of National Monument sites in Utah through mining and drilling. In 2023, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture awarded him its inaugural Exposure Fellowship and accompanying National Endowment for the Arts grant. Through this year-long grant, Mireles worked to create publicly focused art in support of the city’s goal to welcome the region’s many immigrants into the fabric of civic life.

Throughout his work, Mireles engages his audience both visually and through the often subtextual social and environmental contexts that underlie his work. By also experimenting with public installations that often engage viewers outside the traditional gallery format, Mireles seeks to broaden the audience for his art and change how viewers interact with photography as an artistic medium. He currently resides and maintains his studio in the Logan Heights neighborhood of San Diego, California.

Instagam @johnmireles

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

The New Colossus – Artist’s Statement
At the base of the Statue of Liberty, a sonnet bears the words that underlie the mythology of
American immigration, “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free.” While Americans are well familiar with these lines, this poem’s title, The New
Colossus, is generally unknown. Yet virtually every conversation about immigration takes as its
starting point the words famously inscribed at the base of America’s most iconic monument. No
exposition of art themed upon immigration can ignore these words nor the promise that they
have woven into our American identity.
The exhibition itself serves a similar purpose as the Statue of Liberty: to welcome immigrants
into our homeland. Instead of being molded from copper, this series of installations uses
photography – but its purpose remains the same. Also, given the ambitious scope of this
citywide exhibition, the label of colossus is not without merit.
The title New Colossus implies that there exists an old one – or multiple old ones. The reality is
that immigration, and our discussion of it, is an issue older than our country itself. However, it’s
also forever a new topic, fraught with both celebration and controversy. By adopting this title,
this exhibition both acknowledges America’s history of immigration – while also welcoming its
place in our present and future.

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

Artist Statement – In Their Own Words
Though photographs convey a story beyond words, sometimes words are necessary to tell a
more complete story. This exhibition gives voice to the individuals portrayed by including their
story of their journey to American soil in written form along with their portrait. Each individual
was interviewed by the artist and then their resulting words accompany the final finished
photograph. Instead of being placed alongside the photograph, the printed text was glued to
and finished with the print so that their story becomes inextricably attached to their
photograph.
Please note that there are references to violence in some of the photographs. Because San
Diego is a destination for many asylum seekers, this is an all too familiar theme among new
arrivals to the area.
Artwork – Process
The City of San Diego Exposure Fellowship was created to serve as a vehicle for the public
display of photography. To fulfill the requirements of this fellowship, artist John Raymond

Mireles connected with the San Diego immigrant community by creating environmental
portraits of individual immigrants living and working within the city. Photographic portraits have
the power to connect viewers with their subjects and, by extension, the communities they
represent. Also, when viewers see themselves in a portrait, be it of themselves or someone
from their cultural/racial group, it offers them a sense of empowerment and validation. This is
especially the case if they are a member of a marginalized group – as many immigrants are.
Mireles used a high resolution camera and studio lighting equipment to create technically
sophisticated images reminiscent of high value magazine photography. By photographing
immigrants in the same style as a celebrity photograph, Mireles seeks to elevate their status.
The resulting photos from this fellowship were exhibited in a variety of formats, both traditional
and innovative. For example, Mireles used self-adhesive vinyl material to install large-scale
artwork outdoors and on glass. Framed artworks have used a specialized coating to add depth
and eliminate the need for distracting glass to protect the prints.
Mireles also used still-life, documentary and other imagery in addition to text to construct a
visual narrative that both empowers immigrant communities and creates a more inclusive civic
environment.

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words

©John Raymond Mireles, from In Their Own Words