Virago Magazine vəˈräɡō/: a woman of strength or spirit; a female warrior
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John Sevigny
photographer and writer
John Sevigny grew up in a Miami neighborhood which was a frequently contradictory combination of music, art, poverty and urban chaos brought on by waves of immigration and inner city strife. In his photographs, he clings to the idealism that stems from suffering but never forgets the dark memories, and the lessons, of what he has seen and lived. A descendent of a family of Methodist Civil Rights activists, his work frequently addresses issues of social justice.
Sevigny worked several years as a photojournalist for the Associated Press in Mexico, and for the Miami office of EFE News, the official information agency of the government of Spain. He studied Enterprise and Investigative Reporting at the prestigious Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Over the course of the last decade, John Sevigny has created projects ranging from gritty,hard-edged documentaries like his 2007 “Ladies’ Bar” series to far more sublime explorations of the spirit, mortality and existence found in his 2009 project called “El Muerto Pare el Santo”.
As an artist, Sevigny has shown his work in Europe, Mexico, Central America and the United States. He has given lectures and photography workshops in the Unites States, Mexico, and Central America. In 2010, he was Benedictine University’s Artist-in-Residence.
Sevigny has published essays on artists including Willem de Kooning, Francisco Goya, Anselm Kiefer, David Wajnorowicz, Jose Bedia, Ansel Adams, Caravaggio, and Roy De Cavara.
His recent project, “Happyland” shows Central America as it struggles to break free from its war-torn past to survive in the modern age. Sevigny drew inspiration from the works of Caravaggio, French Post-Impressionists and Nabis painters, and literary sources ranging from Hemingway and the Beat writers, to Latin American writers Roque Dalton, Juan Rulfo, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
For more information contact him via
jmmsevigny@gmail.com and www.gonecity.blogspot.com
