About
Michael Mullen was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois. He has undergraduate degrees in history and political science, a master’s degree in English, and worked on a doctorate at the University of South Carolina where he worked as a research assistant for noted Fitzgerald/Hemingway scholar Matthew Bruccoli. His interest in photography started when he was still a child, an obsession he carried into adulthood, and through a thirty-year career teaching college. He and his wife are owners of the Open Gallery in Vincennes, Indiana, where they exhibit painting, photography, sculpture, and textile art of local and national artists. Mullen has shown his work there as well, and at other galleries around the country. Always a lover of books, as a reader and collector, he agrees with Robert Adams, whose website notes that photobooks allow “individual images to relate to and build upon each other in order to form larger visual statements capable of addressing complex questions.” Mullen continues shooting images for a number of photo projects, and is working on researching many more, and expects to mount more exhibits and create photo books from this growing body of work. Exhibits offer a wonderful opportunity to engage with people viewing the work, and he likes the intimate, personal nature of a photobook.