about
Carlos Diaz was born in Pontiac, Michigan. He is currently a Professor Emeritus and former chairman of the Photography Department (1994-2000) at the College for Creative Studies where he has taught for 38 years. Before that time Diaz taught at Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan, School of Art.
Diaz received his BFA from the College for Creative Studies in 1980 and his MFA from the University of Michigan, School of Art in 1983. Diaz is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Ford Foundation, NEA Arts Midwest, The Polaroid Corporation, the Michigan Council for the Arts and the Kresge Foundation among others.
Before his formal studies in the arts, Diaz was a mechanical designer and draftsman in numerous capacities. In the late 1960's early 1970's, Diaz was a drummer in several rock and roll bands. His claim to "15 minutes of fame" may be the fact that his band opened for Bob Seger and the MC5. A continuous objector to the Vietnam War, Diaz was ultimately drafted to serve his country. During this time Diaz, purchased his first 35mm camera. Eventually walking away from a career in mechanical drawing, Diaz enrolled fulltime in art school, with support from the G.I. Bill. He never looked back!
Since the summer of 2017 Diaz has focused his efforts on the project, History, Memory, Myth; The Confederate Monument in the American South. Within this project, Diaz questions how race is intertwined with history, memory, myth and place and how that manifest and is reconciled within a contemporary American experience. This five-year journey became Diaz's first into the American South and represented an evolution of his long-term interest in representing the American landscape as a means of examining the perpetually shifting historical, cultural, and political facts and fictions of the United States. The resulting images were made while traveling over 40,000 miles throughout the South, collecting vintage vinyl records, eating Southern food and when possible, living out of the back of his Subaru.
Diaz's work resides in numerous collections public and private including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Ross Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Website www.carlosdiazphotography.com
