What I discovered at MATC has served me for my entire life … MATC and the professors there actually set me up for the long run.
Behold the human eye.
Nestled in a bony cavity throughout the cranium, this astonishingly compact but advanced ocular marvel consists of greater than two million working components that seize gentle, focus pictures, feed data to the mind and permit us to take pleasure in 10 million colours.
For MATC alumnus Mark Maio, the attention is the place science and artwork intersect. He’s a biomedical photographer and a pioneer in high-resolution ophthalmic digital imaging, in addition to a positive artwork photographer whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries and enshrined within the prestigious George Eastman House in New York.
His fascination with pictures started within the Milwaukee suburbs, was nurtured in Milwaukee Area Technical College’s well-regarded Photography program, and has flourished all over the world for the previous 50 years.
“Most photographers find their relationship with the medium and rarely stray outside those confines,” wrote Brooks Jensen, editor of LensWork Publishing, within the foreword of a guide by Maio. “Except, that is, for a creative individual like Mark Maio.”
Growing up in St. Francis
Maio was born and raised in St. Francis, though his giant, prolonged household grew up close to Brady Street. All 4 of his grandparents immigrated from the identical metropolis — Milazzo in Sicily. One grandfather was a marble mason who helped construct the unique Northwestern Mutual Insurance constructing on Wisconsin Avenue. His mom was one in all eight youngsters. His father served in World War II and labored for Wisconsin Electric Power for 42 years. Maio had 37 first cousins whom he noticed nearly each weekend.
Maio attended Catholic grade college. One yr, the college sponsored a candy-selling contest. First prize was a bicycle that Maio craved. He completed second — one field wanting the highest spot — and received a digicam.
He snapped pictures of his household and of the neighborhood. At St. Francis High School, he took printing courses. As a reward for ending its work early, the category acquired to discover ways to course of movie. Maio’s inventive juices bubbled to the floor when he witnessed a photographic print come to life in a improvement tank.
“That was magical to me,” Maio remembered. “I went into the darkroom at 8:30 a.m. and the next thing I knew it was 4:30 p.m. I was addicted.”
He graduated from highschool in 1973. Maio enrolled at MATC to grow to be a business printer. He lived at dwelling and labored second shift at Appleton Electric to pay tuition. He took pictures courses alongside along with his printing programs. He rapidly found that he didn’t actually like his printing courses and couldn’t wait to get to his pictures courses.
“I changed my degree,” he mentioned. “I wanted to be a photographer.”
Originally, Maio wished to work for Life journal, creating elaborate, long-term tasks within the custom of well-known photographers Margaret Bourke-White and Eugene Smith. But the longtime periodical went out of enterprise whereas he was at MATC.
Elliott F. Schnackenberg, who taught pictures at MATC for 3 many years, was Maio’s inspiration and mentor. “Elliott was my favorite,” Maio mentioned. “I loved having him. The instructors had all worked in the field for many years. They weren’t teaching art; they were teaching us how to be photographic problem solvers.”
Maio earned his affiliate diploma in 1975.
“What I learned at MATC has served me for my whole life,” mentioned Maio, who lives in Alpharetta, Georgia. “I was taught technical skills that at the time I couldn’t understand how I would use professionally, but over the years I have continued to draw on as we moved into the digital age and AI. MATC and the professors there really set me up for the future.”
As a part of his normal training necessities, Maio took a course on how one can write a analysis paper. He selected to jot down about medical pictures, a subject he knew nothing about.
He was enthralled with what he discovered. After graduating from MATC, he took a job as a medical photographer at St. Joseph Hospital in Milwaukee. There he found ophthalmic pictures, which captures detailed pictures and scans of the attention’s inner and exterior buildings. He took a job on the Eye Institute on the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“I thought, what better way for a photographer to help other people than to use photography to help them with their eyesight,” Maio mentioned.
Learning all concerning the eye
As he honed his craft on the Eye Institute, Maio turned fascinated with what he noticed when he photographed retinas, corneas and eyeballs. The colours, the shapes, the designs weren’t simply important medical data, they had been artwork. “I would do what the doctors wanted, then I would experiment,” he mentioned.
In 1980, he left Milwaukee for Atlanta. He took a job because the director of ophthalmic pictures at Emory University. He supervised a six-person employees that did diagnostic, analysis and academic imaging at Emory Clinic, Grady Memorial Hospital and the Atlanta Veterans Administration Hospital.
At the identical time, he was perfecting his positive arts pictures expertise. His medical profession was influencing his inventive endeavors and vice versa. He participated in quite a few pictures workshops, together with one with legendary panorama photographer Ansel Adams.
“I really started to understand vision,” Maio mentioned. “I trained my vision to compose photos with my eyes. You train yourself to look for something that’s not there. You need to look at everything in the frame and remove the things that distract or don’t belong.”
In 1988 he went north and have become the director of ophthalmic pictures at State University of New York (SUNY) in Buffalo. And regardless of having solely his affiliate diploma from MATC, was made a medical assistant professor of ophthalmology on the faculty’s medical college.
While working, he earned a bachelor’s diploma in biomedical pictures from SUNY Empire State College, a grasp’s diploma in American research and historical past, and a Master of Fine Arts diploma in pictures and communication design from the University at Buffalo.
In Buffalo, he additionally undertook his most bold positive arts pictures undertaking — a sprawling survey of the final group of immigrants who shoveled grain onto lake freighters on the Lake Erie docks in Buffalo. He spent greater than three many years creating the collection, known as “Against The Grain.”
“I was using my camera to do research about the subject,” Maio recounted. “I felt like I was being chosen to tell that story. With my photos, I’m trying to connect my eyes, my brain and my heart. When all three hit, I know I’m onto something.”
The collection has been proven at a number of galleries throughout the nation and has been was a guide by Maio and creator Tony Bannon, the previous director of the Eastman House.
“Maio doesn’t just show us a glimpse into a community, he shows us the depth and diversity of a way of life,” Brooks Jensen wrote within the guide’s foreword. “These are images to linger over. We should allow them to wash over us. There is with each image a depth of experience that should not be missed.”
A pioneer in ophthalmology
Meanwhile, Maio’s scientific facet continued to flourish. In 1999, he developed the primary high-resolution retinal digital imaging system in ophthalmology. In 2006, Adobe chosen Maio for its biomedical imaging advisory group. This group labored with Adobe to develop Photoshop Extended, the primary model of the favored software program program to include medical, technical and scientific digital imaging instruments.
He additionally volunteered with ORBIS, a world nonprofit that operates a watch hospital on a aircraft and treats sufferers all over the world. His work with the group has taken him to Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines and Malaysia. In 2008, Maio and his spouse, Catherine, visited Scotland. They fell in love with the nation, particularly the Isle of Skye.
“A combination of Hawaii and the Grand Tetons,” Maio mentioned. “It has rugged coastlines, constantly changing light and weather, perfect for stargazing and seeing the northern lights. It’s really a photographer’s paradise.”
After a number of journeys there, the couple bought a former schoolhouse and have been renovating it ever since. They normally journey there twice a yr, he mentioned. Maio additionally presents a pictures workshop and retreat there.
Now 71, Maio continues to seek the advice of, write, journey and evaluation his in depth catalog of pictures. “These days it’s about finishing projects I’ve started. It’s not really about making new images, but reviewing what I have done and getting them out there,” he mentioned. “They don’t do any good sitting in my drawer or on my hard drive.”
Still, when a exceptional picture flashes into his field of regard, Maio springs into motion. On a current go to to a pal’s dwelling in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Maio was drawn to a farm silo, freshly painted white, subsequent to a brilliant purple barn.
He noticed it along with his eyes and needed to snap it along with his digicam.
“It was striking and I had to make that photograph,” he mentioned with a smile.
Learn more about Mark Maio and his career
About MATC: As Wisconsin’s largest technical faculty and one of the crucial numerous two-year establishments within the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s financial system and has offered progressive training within the area since 1912. More than 35,000 college students per yr attend the school’s 4 campuses and community-based websites or study on-line. MATC presents inexpensive and accessible training and coaching alternatives that empower and remodel lives locally. The faculty presents greater than 180 tutorial applications — many who put together college students for jobs instantly upon completion and others that present switch choices resulting in bachelor’s levels with greater than 45 four-year schools and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates construct careers and companies in southeastern Wisconsin. The faculty is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.