Around the World: Cyriaque Milhau
This is an extension of Mitch Cohen’s art column, Art Valet, from The Leader Newspaper. Read the column here. The theme was “Around the World.” Mitch invited artists from his mailing list to tell him their stories and where they are from.
Cyriaque Milhau
Photography Engineer
https://www.instagram.com/frenchtexan/
Where ya from:
Valenciennes, France – Way up north, by the Belgian border.
How long have you been in the U.S./Houston:
Since 2004, with only one year back in France in 2008
What kind of artist are you?
I like to call myself a photography engineer. Starting with my own photography, I structure and modify familiar sights into something new, unseen, and hopefully unexpected. I also like to be a social artist where some of my work can benefit local associations to help our community.
Has living in the states, changed your art? How?
The US, and particularly Houston, can leave an impression to Europeans first visiting. Those colossal highways exchangers, the shimmering skylines (as Houston has the privilege to have more than one), the gargantuesque food and even the amazing people welcoming me at the same time “boycott France” was trending in the early stage of the Iraq war. While it has definitely inspired me to capture bigger and brighter things, it did not, however, change me as a photographer initially. But the American mindset, which eventually set in, eventually did.
What Americans are known to excel at is breaking any rule, any convention, that stand between them and success. It applies to architecture, manufacturing, culinary fields and many others. For me, it is what shaped me to break from classical photography to create something beyond what the lens could capture. It’s playing with any technology at hand to push past common places and unapologetically craft my own concepts regardless of the conventions that otherwise revolve around photography.
What would you recommend a visitor to your country try doing/seeing or tasting in your country?
The first thing you need to find is a local bakery. There will always be one at walking distance from anywhere in France. Nothing beats the fresh bread still crispy and warm from the oven that you pick up in the morning.
After that, look for churches, cathedrals, basilicas. Most of them are always open to the public, but before you go visit them, learn about their history. When they were originally built, expanded. When they were torn down, and later rebuilt, renovated. Once you know that, you get to appreciate the architecture, the details in the writings, and the art that shows through structure, paintings and stained glass. Churches taken in a vertical panorama are one of my favorite things to shoot.
