"Nam Era: Never Forgotten" Opens June 29

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History will be presenting three new exhibitions beginning June 29, 2013. Please join us from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. on June 29 as we host a reception to meet the artist featured in “Nam Era: Never Forgotten - a photographic tribute by J. Michael Johnson”. A special Veterans’ Preview of the exhibit will be held on Friday, June 28 from 10:00-3:00.

Also opening on the 29th will be the exhibits “American Colors: Patriotism Reflected in Art” and “Legacy: Drawings & Paintings by Melody M. Davis”. All three exhibitions will continue through August 15, 2013.

J. Michael Johnson was born and raised in East Tennessee and has lived in the southeast United States all his life. He began taking images and working in his darkroom over thirty years ago and has traveled extensively across the United States and the world to capture images. His love of photographing the motorcycle lifestyle and other subjects, and his self-taught methods along with formal courses and in-field seminars with nationally known photographers, have truly defined the subjects he has photographed and written about over the years.

These experiences have provided a collection of work that documents bikers and biker ladies riding on Daytona’s Main Street along with the serious side of these riders as they remember the Vietnam era, showing them riding from the Pentagon to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day to remember a fallen comrade, a brother, a sister or a father whose name is now engraved forever in the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He captures the images the general public never hears about or sees. J. Michael’s color and black and white photographs capture the Spirit of America and its precious Freedom of Speech.

When asked about his work, Johnson said, “The Nam Era: Never Forgotten”, is a veterans photo tribute that I started in 1997 at ‘The Wall’ (The Vietnam Veterans Memorial) in Washington, DC. It shows us that “Freedom Is Not Free” as another part of my photojournalist journey into the motorcycle lifestyle that is so often shied away from by so many civilians and journalists.”

He continued, “The early Sunday morning walks into the depth and quietness of ‘The Wall’ lets me digital capture veterans visiting names on ‘The Wall’ that represent the real ‘Human Cost of Freedom’. The names of young boys and girls growing up too fast, fighting a war on foreign soil and in so many cases giving their lives fighting for American freedom in a land that some say God forgot - Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. These digital images show friends and family members touching loved ones names and making a rubbing of the name so they can remember, honor and keep their loved ones memory alive. It also serves to remind us that we still have POW-MIA’s in Vietnam.” Johnson concluded, “There are still parts of this exhibit that live only in my head as I sometimes must make the decision as when to let an award winning image go because a Vietnam vet’s personal privacy was much more important than a photograph.”

Since 1997, J. Michael’s photographic and written work about Daytona’s Bike Week, as well as many other motorcycle rallies and events, has been repeatedly featured in “Easyriders”, “Biker” and “In The Wind” magazines. He has provided commercial photography services to various companies in the motorcycle industry, including Lehman Trikes of Canada publishing J. Michael’s work in their “Pride Matters” magazine. His renowned motorcycle lifestyle photography has resulted in his giving slide shows to numerous motorcycle clubs, churches and civic groups. His most requested images are of the Vietnam veterans visiting the “Moving Wall” and the “Vietnam Veterans Memorial” in Washington DC during “Rolling Thunder” events. Please visit his web site (www.JMichael.smugmug.com) to see where his photographic travels have taken him recently.

J. Michael is a co-founder of the Spartanburg Photo Guild, a member of the American Image Press/Today’s Photographer Magazine, and served two terms on the Board of Trustees, of The Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg South Carolina.

Recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families and the Department of Defense as a 2013 Blue Star Museum, the Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Located at the corner of Hwy. 178 at 307 Johnson Street in Pickens SC, the museum is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcomed.

 For more information please contact the museum at (864) 898-5963.