Photo Courtesy of Pao Houa Her and Bockley Gallery
Pao Houa Her
Pao Houa Her, 2020
Most artists have the technical skills, insight and ability to interpret their own emotions and those of their subjects successfully through their medium of choice. The very best ones also take the social responsibility of using their skills to interpret and recreate the thoughts and feelings of their community to better inform viewers of their work.
Hmong photographer Pao Houa Her falls into this more esteemed category, interpreting her community’s experiences in ways both artistic and profound. The photographs on display in “The Imaginative Landscape,” Her’s one-woman show based on her 20 years of work, opens March 15 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan. Her’s work illustrates the artist’s deft photographic eye, sense of community, and the soul of the Hmong who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s, all within the click of the lens.
“I always wanted to be a storyteller and thought I might want to write, but I wasn’t very good at it,” says Her, who moved to the U.S. from Laos as an infant with her family, eventually settling in St. Paul, MN, in the mid-1980s. Exposed to the work of Asian American photographer Wing Young Huie and supported by her father’s own interest in photographic storytelling, Her found the appropriate creative path that allowed her to reflect and tell the story of the Hmong in America without losing the creative touches that tie them to their land of origin.
Elevating Experiences
“I know the connection isn’t exactly emotional, but to me it feels that way,” says Jodi Throckmorton, who curated the show for JMKAC. “There is something Pao does that elevates everyday experiences of family and friends, producing incredibly beautiful photos of everyday things.”
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Her’s work also is uniquely Hmong in its execution. Unique faces appear in front of vast mountain ranges and are fronted by floral displays she says make the images familiar to her community members as a distinct style of Hmong portraiture. A touch of fantasy on the photographer’s part also takes them to a unique level, she adds.
“I love that you used the word fantasy,” Her says. “I make my work about my own community and the questions being asked by my community. Photography isn’t always true, but it can enact a fantasy and be a fantastical medium to document the current thinking, asking and answering questions for community members in the process.”
At more than 5,000 members, Sheboygan’s Hmong community is the largest in Wisconsin, meaning the exhibit, which ends August 31, already has built-in city-wide audience. That made it worthwhile for Throckmorton and JMKAC to reach beyond museum walls to strategically place Her’s work in banks, restaurants, businesses, and even the Sheboygan County Courthouse, using the entire city as a canvas for Her’s art and creativity in reaching both Hmong viewers and those who may want to learn more about them.
“We made the effort to reach out to the community and renegotiate the viewers experience of place,” Throckmorton says. “She has prints and lightboxes featuring her work throughout Sheboygan. We’re even producing yard signs for whomever wants to display them.”
What is Her’s goal for “The Imaginative Landscape?” “I want the Hmong to ask critical questions about the state of our community as a whole,” the artist says. “My work is about community issues and my photography is a way is to further these conversations and investigations. At least, that’s my hope.”
Pao Houa Her’s The Imaginative Landscape runs March 15 through August 31 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan. For more information, visit jmkac.org.
