Duane Michals,
born on February 18, 1932 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, is one of the best-known
exponents of narrative serial photography. Interested in art from a young age,
Michals took classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before
attending the University of Denver, Colorado, from which he received a Bachelor
of Arts degree. He was stationed in Germany as a soldier until 1954. In 1956,
after service in the army, he continued to pursue his interest in the arts at
the Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he trained as a graphic
designer but soon quit in order to work as an assistant director at Dance
magazine. He later worked as a layout designer at Time Inc. His photographic
career commenced in 1958, when he travelled to the Soviet Union and made
portraits of people on the streets with a borrowed camera. On his return, he
worked as a freelance photographer for Vogue, Esquire, Mademoiselle, and Life
magazines, doing fashion photography and portraits.
Over the years, Michals's approach to expressive photography changed considerably. His early interest in street happenings led him to make single documentary images of events that were considered part of what then was called the “social landscape.” In the mid 1960s he lost interest in straight documentation. Inspired by the work of such painters as RenĂ© Magritte and Balthus, Michals began to address literary and philosophical ideas about death, gender, and sexuality. He usually staged scenes to be photographed and worked with multiple exposures, sequences, and series. He also experimented with combining text and drawings with his images.
Over the years, Michals's approach to expressive photography changed considerably. His early interest in street happenings led him to make single documentary images of events that were considered part of what then was called the “social landscape.” In the mid 1960s he lost interest in straight documentation. Inspired by the work of such painters as RenĂ© Magritte and Balthus, Michals began to address literary and philosophical ideas about death, gender, and sexuality. He usually staged scenes to be photographed and worked with multiple exposures, sequences, and series. He also experimented with combining text and drawings with his images.
He uses text and photographs in a deliberate
combination to extend the narrative of both mediums, creating mini photo short
stories. They are often of a personal nature, Michals relies on his own history
as subject material, often re-creating scenes in his family life to form modern
day parables in a modern day medium. The words associated with the photographs
form a complete and give meaning as a whole work. They are located on the
photographic paper, within the closed frame. Michals uses his own handwriting
directly onto the print, and has been known to write and paint on prints of
famous photographers he owns, extending their narratives to suit his own
purpose.
He
says, “No one can reproduce my handwriting, but someone else can always make a
new print.” In this way we can see Michals makes a deliberate attempt to create
one off pieces in a medium where the possibility of endless quality
reproduction is inherent in multiple fine prints. This makes each piece unique,
and increases the rarity of the work. Michals began to associate the photograph
with the narrative early in his career, in 1966, thinking and shooting in
sequences. In 1974 he began to add written narratives to the photo narratives
and in 1979 began to combine painting with photographs.
Mostly he is known for his
black and white prints, usually small in size, on a large white paper, onto
which he scrawls his narratives. The words associated with the pictures are fundamental
to the whole; they are like poetic additions, actually using the handwritten
form as part of the image closed within the confines of the photographic paper.
They are also fantasies, elaborate comic distortions relying on
humour and the sense of the absurd to proceed. They are like films, and fall
between silent movies of years gone by, with action on screen being followed by
a screen of full text narrating the plot sequence. Michals borrows many
techniques from different art forms, combining them to weave intricate stories.
The theme of the too real photograph is a reason why he started
moving away from simple single images that made his name in the 1960's. After a
trip to Russia, his work became known, and his professional work blossomed. It
was his frustration with the simplicity of traditional presentation that
started his quest for something different, and a way to take risks with the
medium. What we see is an emotional use of words by and artist who found
frustration with the single image as a means of expressing his viewpoints. The
combination of sequence and word narrative seems a risky way to take his use of
the medium further, by edging his photograph too close to a short story photo
novel, or still silent movie.
“The best part of us
is not what we see, it’s what we feel. We are what we feel. We are not what we
look at. ... We’re not our eyeballs, we’re our mind. People believe their
eyeballs and they’re totally wrong. ... That’s why I consider most photographs
extremely boring–just like Muzak, inoffensive, charming, another waterfall,
another sunset. This time, colours have been added to protect the innocent.
It’s just boring. But that whole arena of one’s experience–grief,
loneliness–how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these
things? This is what you are, not what you see. It’s all sitting up here. I
could do all my work sitting in my room. I don’t have to go anywhere”. – Duane Michals.
Michals tries to evoke emotions to
create feeling more so than a pretty picture, he breaks boundaries and makes
the viewer think about the picture instead of just looking. And it is important
to know that Michals work was not just art that
displayed absurd images of contrasting objects or dream like worlds but that
there was metaphor and meaning behind it and a reason for doing it. So with
this I think it safe to say that Duane Michals work touches on surrealism like
so of the artists René Magritte and Balthus who
influenced Michals.
Over the past five decades Michal’s work has been exhibited in the
United States and abroad. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, hosted Michals’s
first solo exhibiton (1970), and a year later the George Eastman House,
Rocherster, NY, mounted another (1971). More recently, he has had one person
shoes at the Odakyu Museum, Tokyo (1999) and at the International Centre of
Photography, New York (2005). In 2008, Michals celebrated his 50th
anniversary as a photographer with a retrospective exhibition at the
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece and the Scavi Scaligeri in Verona,
Italy. His work has been included in numerous group shows including “Cosmos” at
the Musee de Beaux Arts de Montreal (1999), “The Century of the Body:
Photoworks 1900-2000 at the Musee s l’Elysee, Lausanne (1999), “From Camouflage
to Free Style” at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1999) and the
“The Ecstasy of Things” at the Fotomuseum Winterhur, Switzerland.
In recognition of his contributions to photography, Michals has
been honoured with a CAPS Grant (1975), a National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowship (1976), the International Centre of Photography Infinity Award for
Art (1989), the Foto Espana International Award (2001 and an Honorary Doctorate
of Fine Arts from Monserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass (2005). Michals’s
work belongs to numerous permanent collections in the US and abroad.
Michals still lives and works in New York today.
