bio

Welcome to mogaphoto.

My name is Steve Moga. I am a photographer and a PhD student in urban planning.

I was born in San Francisco and raised in Virginia. Over the years, I have lived in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Boston.

I've been taking photos along much of this journey, but especialy during the last ten years. A six-week road trip across the United States in 1997 reinvigorated my interest in image-making and, ever since, I haven't been able to put the camera down.

I'm curious about photography's potential to inform, to pose questions, and to communicate. For me, photography offers a method of investigating the built environment and landscape, past and present.

At MIT, I study city planning history. I'm interested in how the interpretation of historic events influences decision-making, especially in contemporary land use conflicts, and, how changing interpretations of historic events shape perceptions of the field of urban planning over time.

My research investigates how ideas of social improvement have been articulated in plans for the built environment and landscape, the degree to which those plans were implemented, and the extent to which they succeeded in re-shaping communities. In my academic work to date I have examined the history of park planning in the late nineteenth century and public housing in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.   

Previously, I worked as a VISTA Volunteer, a resident services coordinator of a large affordable housing complex, and an historic preservation consultant. I have also served on the Board of Directors of the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Thanks for visiting.

©2002-2006

Steven T. Moga

All rights reserved. Duplication of any material on this site without author's consent and attribution is expressly prohibited.