Jay Muhlin works in photography with a focus on artist books. He employs a wide range of visual languages through immersive photographic exploration, addressing the idea of loss, intimacy, comfort, anxiety, and masculinity. Stemming from his own life experiences, his books and photographs are crafted from detailed research, as he negotiates this emotional territory with a camera. Central to this exploration is an examination and response to how myths and metaphors are communicated visually. What results are multivalent narratives that not only define his subjects with empathy and seek an emotional truth, but reveal the complex relationship between photographer and subject. His collaborative video work explores a childhood understanding of cartoons in relation to the depictions of robots, augmented personalities and the articulation of power.

Muhlin is currently completing his last year at Syracuse University where he is an MFA candidate in the Transmedia Art Photograhy program. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in photography, Muhlin’s work has appeared in various editorial publications worldwide. In 2008 Muhlin published his first long-term book project entitled Half Life: A Portrait of Lauren. The book documents the life and suicide of a close friend and the artist’s relationship to her. He has recently completed residencies at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester NY, The Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, NY and at Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside in Troy NY. Muhlin has taught courses at Syracuse University and was a visiting faculty member at Bennington College in 2011.

jay@jaymuhlin.com