About the book:

Dana Mueller’s first monograph May Days is a record of the artist’s experience in Cuba during the month of May. While teaching photography in Havana, Cuba in 2014 and 2015, Mueller investigated the culture through her own photographic narrative and her images are connected by her understanding of the attitudes, views, and life of the island. Her story is of an outsider’s perspective of daily life, the condition, the vitality and decay within the city. Mueller plays on some of the common subjects and themes but she tells a very different story. Mueller’s East German upbringing has a strong influence on her aesthetic, yet, this filter does not force images that dictate the narrative. She hints at the what she calls seeing “through the filter of socialism and economic hardship – although only too apparent – but through social and human engagement that was serendipitous and open.”

Her images are visual and each stands alone as quiet moments of everyday life in Cuba. In the individual photographs, she hints at themes that are often seen in images of Cuba through symbolic imagery – issues with infrastructure, jobs, and architectural renovation; the hold of socialist politics, contrasted with the vitality and vibrancy of the people, yet, her subtle and muted-colored images speak to each other and are a well-conceived and unique view of this tropical, lively, and verdant country.

About Dana Mueller
www.danamueller.net

Dana Mueller was born and raised in Thuringia, East Germany until the fall of the Berlin Wall. She received her MFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art + Design.  

Awards include the 1st Prize Juror's Award, New England Photography Biennial 2015, Danforth Art Museum, MA, the Visual Arts Artist Fellowship Grant, Somerville Arts Council, the Half Prize Books Award as part of the Joyce Elaine Grant Award, Texas Woman's University, the St. Botolph Foundation Grant, St. Botolph Club, MA, the first place Visual Art Exchange Award, NC, the second place in the Hotshot International Next Perspective Award, UK, among others. Her work has been extensively exhibited, including the Le Lieu Unique/ National Center for Contemporary Arts, Nantes, France, the Pavillon de Bagatelle, Paris, France, Rick Wester Fine Art (NY), the Chase Center, RISD Museum of Art (RI), the Photographic Resource Center (MA), Gallery 360, Northeastern University (MA), Bakalar Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art + Design (MA), Art Institute of Boston Gallery (MA), St. Botolph Club (MA), Danforth Art Museum (MA), Black Cloud Gallery (IL) and Visual Art Exchange (NC). Recent publications include Ain't-Bad Magazine, TIME LightBox, Flak Photo, Humble Arts Women in Photography, Prison Photography, One One Thousand - Publication of Southern Photography, Purpose (France), Artscope, and The New York Photo Review.  

Mueller currently teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art + Design, Lesley University College of Art + Design and Northeastern University College of Art, Media + Design.