Miko Munden studied graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University (at the time one of the three largest design schools in the world) in the early nineties only to make the improbable career move immediately afterward of becoming a Head Start teacher. During his five years there his lifelong interest in photography continued to grow. Taking advantage of the fact that the Head Start center he worked in was housed at a local university, he audited a photography class and received his first formal training in what had by then become his favorite subject. On one random afternoon while in transit from the class he taught in to the class he learned in, he happened upon a gelatin-silver print by a fellow student and experienced what he describes as "seeing" a photograph for the first time. The event was transformative for him. Shortly afterward he began work on his "Children of Grandy Park" series and took an evening job as a portrait photographer at a local mall while maintaining his position with Head Start.
In the years that followed Miko worked as a black and white film processor, a sports photographer, a school photographer, an event photographer, and finally as a commercial photographer and photojournalist. While he continues to find commercial photography very rewarding it is for photojournalism that he's gone to the greatest lengths; at one point being detained as he attempted to cover a story for Inside Business. He's said of his approach, somewhat tongue in cheek, "One thing I love to do, while shooting a job, is put my safety at risk. Often I find ways to do it when it's entirely unnecessary."
Miko has photographed musicians as varied as Bo Diddley, Stanley Jordan, and Little Willie Littlefield, shot inside wind tunnels, dilapidated buildings, and the eye of Hurricane Isabel, made images of both scientific and cultural luminaries such as the Tuskegee Airmen, and documented a wide range of landmark events such as the Chicago Blues Festival and the formative years of Open Books Ltd. Today his work has been published extensively and received numerous accolades and awards.
Clients of Miko/MikoPhoto include:
Port Folio Weekly
Contemporary Art Center
Days Inn Hotels
Inside Business
National Association of Women Business Owners
Operation Blessing
Open Books
Oy!Chicago
Regent University
Sentara Healthcare
The Curtis Group
Tim Reid Foundation
Time Out Chicago
Virginia Air & Space Center
info@mikophoto.net
757.651.0107
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