A. J. MEEK

1963-67
United States Air Force Photographer stationed SAC Larson AFB Moses Lake, Washington and RAFB Bentwaters, England.

1967-70
Residing in Los Angeles California while a student at the Art Center College of Design. Graduated with B.F.A. in Art with honors. Studied with Todd Walker.

1970-72
Graduate studies in Photography at Ohio University Athens, Ohio. Worked with Arnold Gassan while a teaching assistant at the University. Graduated with M.F.A. degree.

1972-75
First teaching position at Utah State University. Promoted to Assistant Professor. Exhibited work in National juried shows. Completed bodies of work-Night Creatures and Lagoon, an amusement park near Salt Lake City, Utah.

1975
Awarded National Endowment for the Arts $5,000 Exhibition Aid Grant to do research into and to produce an exhibition titled "Spirit of Utah 1876-1976" This was a historical and contemporary photography comparative study to alert the populace to their cultural heritage. A catalog of the exhibit was produced.

1976
Leave without pay to photograph the Highlands of Scotland. Limited edition portfolio "The Highlands" and numerous exhibitions were a result of this effort.

1977
Left teaching post at Utah State University to develop photography program at LSU. Promoted in rank to Associate Professor.

1979
Exhibited "The Highlands" at Inverness Museum and Gallery, Inverness, Scotland

1980
Photography in Louisiana 1900-1980 New Orleans Museum of Art.

1981
Awarded a Louisiana State University Teaching Fellowship $3,000 Award to photograph 19th century Architecture in Louisiana.

1982
Exhibited "The Highlands" at City of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, Aberdeen, Scotland

1983
Completed body of work on the rural landscape in Louisiana titled "A Sense of Place; A Sense of Presence" Continued working on project.

Awarded Sabbatical leave.

1984
A Century of Vision, Louisiana Photography 1884-1984 exhibited at the Louisiana State Museum, Calbildo Building, New Orleans, LA. Exhibited the following year at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
1984-Exhibited work at the New Orleans Museum of Art-Three Person Show

1985
Traveled to Florence, Italy, to teach and make photographs resulting in a body of work and a limited edition portfolio titled Views of the Boboli Gardens.

1986
First major book published Red Pepper Paradise, Avery Island Louisiana, A book devoted to the McIlhenny's beloved Avery Island, a wild life refuge, arboretum. salt mines, and home of Tabasco Pepper Sauce.

Awarded a Louisiana State University Summer Research Fellowship $4,000 award to photograph the Central Valley in California.

1987
Awarded a Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship of $3,500 for career enhancement. Work is exhibited widely throughout the south.

Promoted in rank to Professor.

1989
New Southern Photographers, Burden Gallery, New York, New York.

1990
Aperture, Beyond Wilderness, summer. An issue devoted to the concerns of environmental pollution and the industrial landscape.

Awarded Sabbatical leave.

Travel to American west including the four corners region of the United States to photograph on Indian reservations and National Parks. "The Sacred Mesa" a limited edition portfolio, work in progress, was the result of this effort.
1990-The Society for Contemporary Photography, "Silent Witness", Kansas City, Missouri.

1991
New Orleans Museum of Art/Contemporary Arts Center, "Figure/ Ground: Louisiana Photography Today", New Orleans, Louisiana.

Awarded Division of the Arts Fellowship in Photography of $5,000 for career enhancement. Work begun on platinum printing.

1992
Memphis College of Art, "Emerging Southern Photographers", Memphis, Tennessee, March. Catalog published.

1993
New Orleans Museum of Art, "Between Heaven and Home: Contemporary American Landscape Photography", February 6-March 24, A supplementary exhibition to the traveling show.

"Photo National" Zoller Gallery, Penn State University Park, Pennsylvania, January 11-February 28. Curated by Charles Stainback, curator of Photography, International Center of Photography, New York. Selected for the traveling exhibition, two years in the United States. Catalog published.

1994
Selected by David Madden to serve on the Board of Advisors to the United States Civil War Center. 

Received a $4,000 Louisiana State University Council on Research Fellowship to photograph the Civil War battlefields in Virginia including Gettysburg.

1995
Exhibited "Battlefield: Photographs of Civil War Battlefields Vicksburg to Gettysburg" September through November, Hill Memorial Library, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Catalog published. Photographs by A. J. Meek, text by Richard Cox. A United States Civil War Center publication.

Exhibited "The Sacred and the Profane" Photographs looking at the positive and negative side of the landscape in Louisiana, Ameen Art Gallery, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana.

1996
Exhibited a major body of work with five others photographers, "Raising Cane: 200 Years of Louisiana Sugar Production", The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana. Catalog published.

Exhibited at the Birmingham Museum of Art, A large group show "The South by It's Photographers" Curated by Alex Harris, Ellen Dugan, and Philip Morris. Featured in September/October issue of Southern Accents. Catalog published.

1997
Published Gardens of Louisiana: Places of Work and Wonder, photographs by A. J. Meek and text by Suzanne Turner, LSU Press. A book depicting Louisiana's garden culture inspired by the French photographer, Eugene Atget's photographs of Versailles and St. Cloud.

Exhibited "Battlefield: Photographs of Civil War Battlefields Vicksburg to Gettysburg", Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange, Georgia. Lecture.

1998
Awarded Sabbatical leave.

Exhibited photographs of Civil War battlefields at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia. Exhibit titled: "Sacred Sites: Then and Now."

Opened Albert Blue Studio and Gallery.

1999
Received a Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities grant to aid in the publication of a biography of the photographer Clarence John Laughlin.

2001
Retrospective exhibit  at the Louisiana Arts and Science Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Published the book Gettysburg to Vicksburg: The Five Original Civil War Battlefield Parks.

2002
Awarded the Emogene Pliner Professor of Art. Closed Albert Blue Gallery

2003
Exhibition at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon. November Catalog published.

2004
Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, Recent Acquisitions: New Southern Photography, the Story of the South, It’s Art and Culture 1890-2003.

2005
Retires from LSU as a Professor Emeritus.

2006
Photography work begins on restoration of churches and synagogues in New Orleans.

2007
Publishes book Clarence John Laughlin: Prophet without Honor with the University Press of Mississippi.

2009
Selected as the Garrey Carruthers Distinguished Chair in the Honors Program at the University of New Mexico

2010
Publishes book Sacred Light: Holy Places in Louisiana with the University Press of Mississippi.

2011
Publishing Incentive grant from LEH, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities for a book on sugar cane titled Vanishing Sugar: Louisiana's Disappearing Sugar Cane Industry.

2012
Archives of negatives and vintage prints are with The Historic New Orleans Collection for perpetual care.

2013
Exhibit at The Historic New Orleans Collection: "Civil War Battlefields and Natural Parks: Photographs by A. J. Meek."

2014
Publishes book The Healing Presence, Photographs of the Sky and Children's Perceptions of Hope.

2022
Belinda V. Meek, wife of nearly 60 years, passes away on May 2nd.
Daughter Patricia L. Meek and spouse Rhonda Mauser move in to provide care.
Exhibition: Included in The Collection of Robert and Kristen Adams at he Denver Art Museum. (Show ends January 3, 2023)

For a listing of Collections that include the Work of A. J. Meek, click here.

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