BINGO - Andrew Miksys

In 1981, Andrew Miksys’ father started publishing the Bingo Today newspaper in Seattle. The newspaper was filled with photographs his father took of bingo players and stories about the prizes they won. Advertising by local bingo halls paid the bills. Andrew’s mom wrote the horoscopes. Andrew was introduced to the world of bingo when I was eleven and his parents took him to a bingo session for kids. He won $300. Within a few days he bought the best BMX bike I could find, a red and blue Redline MXIII. It was his dream bike. He went to a custom shop and put it together piece by piece. In very little time it had brought him fortune and the envy of all his friends. When Andrew got his driver’s license at sixteen, his dad gave him the job of delivering the Bingo Today to bingo halls and convenience stores all around Seattle. Ten years later he returned to Seattle to visit his parents for Christmas and decided to revisit some of the bingo halls with his camera. The bingo hall managers and regulars remembered him from his delivery days and Andrew began making photographs for this project. Over the next seven years, he expanded the project and photographed in many other bingo halls around the United States. BINGO includes Andrew’s color photographs, his father’s black and white photographs, and some graphic design elements from Bingo Today.