Trash talk

Hamilton, OH - One man's trash is another man's treasure. Or at least a part of his art.

Photographer Kent Krugh hosted an artist talk discussing his portion of the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial exhibition - Milestones: Finding Our Way - with Miami University Hamilton sculpture students and members of the general public.

Krugh shot more than 20,000 photos of the Great Miami River over the last two and a half years to create his body of work, which includes six framed prints and a rotating series of slides displayed on a television monitor. Many of them are composites, layering 40 or more photos to create a single image.

He talked about the various ways the riverway is polluted, including industrial waste, sewage, wastewater runoff and litter.

One of Krugh's prints features a variety of beer cans and bottles strewn along the riverbank, with a Budweiser can prominently visible in the center. He said he chose it because - anecdotally - he saw more Bud and Busch cans among the litter in his journeys up and down the Great Miami than any other particular brand.

"That's the paradox - there's beauty in the river and there's sadness in the river," Krugh said. "That's the power of the art - and of the artist - to illustrate the paradox and show how we're affecting our own environment."

The official gallery-opening celebration for the Milestones exhibition runs 5 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 17.

Michael Tittel talks about his silver gelatin images investigating histories of Ohio Valley watersheds at 6 p.m. in the Fitton Family Theater. Guests also will learn about student photography projects involving river communities and discuss the overall exhibitions during a Q&A featuring a panel of Milestones artists.

For their part, Professor Roscoe Wilson's Miami Hamilton sculpture students undertake a project similar to Krugh's exploration of the Great Miami.

They filled eight giant trash bags with debris collected from a half-mile stretch of the Great Miami and turn their findings into sculptures going on view in the Fitton Center Community Gallery in November.