CHICAGO, IL.- Loyola University Museum of Art focuses on the art of photography this summer and features three new exhibitions: Susan Aurinko: Searching for Jehanne – The Joan of Arc Project, Jeffrey Wolin: Pigeon Hill: Then and Now, and Michelle Murphy: Responsive Beauty. On display through Saturday, October 21, this collection of exhibitions showcases the work of local artists exploring issues of identity, struggle, and perseverance. To celebrate these Chicago photographers, LUMA is offering free admission through Saturday, November 11.

Susan Aurinko: Searching for Jehanne — The Joan of Arc Project
In 2013, Chicago-based artist Susan Aurinko went on a photographic expedition to France. While in the Loire Valley, she visited a 12th century chateau that was once the temporary home of St. Joan of Arc. Captivated by the legend of the saint, Aurinko repeatedly returned to photograph the places where Joan of Arc once lived, prayed, and fought throughout her brief life. Aurinko employs layered images to explore the iconographic nature of this revered saint through popular culture, literature, feminism, and theology.

Jeffrey Wolin: Pigeon Hill: Then and Now
Jeffrey Wolin is internationally recognized for his distinct approach to combining photography with the written word. This recent project revisits a 1987–1991 portrait series depicting the residents of Pigeon Hill, a housing project in Bloomington, Indiana. Over the last five years, Wolin returned to Pigeon Hill and re-photographed more than 100 individuals. These compelling images share memories told by Pigeon Hill residents through handwritten narratives addressing drug addiction, violence, poverty, friendship, and hope. Placed side by side in the galleries, these paired portraits trace three decades of life at Pigeon Hill.

Michelle Murphy: Responsive Beauty
Responsive Beauty explores the complexities of creating abstract work that is sociopolitical in content. Michelle Murphy’s photographs feature beauty products as art materials and consider the triangular relationship between consumer culture, the beauty industry, and the wage disparity between genders. The resulting images reveal the capacity of cosmetics to function as both a metaphor and a consumable object. Murphy is a Chicago-based artist with a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and worked as a photographer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for more than a decade.