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Photo Poche #12
Duane Michals
Born in 1932 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Duane Michals has become best known for his compelling narrative sequences, including "The Voyage of the Spirit After Death," "Paradise Regained," and "The Fallen Angel." His work reflects a haunting obsession with life and death, fantasy and reality - thematic opposites expressed through his use of double exposures, superimposed images, props, mirrors, and the ambiguous notations that often appear on the margins of the photographs.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
92 people want to read
About the author
Duane Michals
93 books27 followersDuane Michals (b. 1932, McKeesport, PA) is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text.
Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s. In an era heavily influenced by photojournalism, Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. Michals has also incorporated text as a key component in his works. Rather than serving a didactic or explanatory function, his handwritten text adds another dimension to the images’ meaning and gives voice to Michals’s singular musings, which are poetic, tragic, and humorous, often all at once.
Over the past five decades, Michals’s work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, hosted Michals’s first solo exhibition (1970). More recently, he has had one-person shows at the Odakyu Museum, Tokyo (1999), and at the International Center 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.
In recognition of his contributions to photography, Michals has been honored with a CAPS Grant (1975), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1976), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Art (1989), the Foto España International Award (2001), and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass. (2005).
Michals's work belongs to numerous permanent collections in the U.S. and abroad, including the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Michals's archive is housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
Monographs of Michals's work include Homage to Cavafy (1978); Nature of Desire (1989); Duane Michals: Now Becoming Then (1990); Salute, Walt Whitman (1996); The Essential Duane Michals (1997); Questions Without Answers (2001); The House I Once Called Home (2003) and Foto Follies / How Photography Lost Its Virginity on the Way to the Bank (2006). Forthcoming publications include 50 (Admira Photography, June 2008); a collection of Michals’s writing (Delpire Editeur, Fall 2008); and his Japanese-inspired, color photographs (Steidl, Fall 2008).
Michals received a BA from the University of Denver in 1953 and worked as a graphic designer until his involvement with photography deepened in the late 1950s. He currently lives and works in New York City.
Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s. In an era heavily influenced by photojournalism, Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. Michals has also incorporated text as a key component in his works. Rather than serving a didactic or explanatory function, his handwritten text adds another dimension to the images’ meaning and gives voice to Michals’s singular musings, which are poetic, tragic, and humorous, often all at once.
Over the past five decades, Michals’s work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, hosted Michals’s first solo exhibition (1970). More recently, he has had one-person shows at the Odakyu Museum, Tokyo (1999), and at the International Center 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.
In recognition of his contributions to photography, Michals has been honored with a CAPS Grant (1975), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1976), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Art (1989), the Foto España International Award (2001), and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass. (2005).
Michals's work belongs to numerous permanent collections in the U.S. and abroad, including the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Michals's archive is housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
Monographs of Michals's work include Homage to Cavafy (1978); Nature of Desire (1989); Duane Michals: Now Becoming Then (1990); Salute, Walt Whitman (1996); The Essential Duane Michals (1997); Questions Without Answers (2001); The House I Once Called Home (2003) and Foto Follies / How Photography Lost Its Virginity on the Way to the Bank (2006). Forthcoming publications include 50 (Admira Photography, June 2008); a collection of Michals’s writing (Delpire Editeur, Fall 2008); and his Japanese-inspired, color photographs (Steidl, Fall 2008).
Michals received a BA from the University of Denver in 1953 and worked as a graphic designer until his involvement with photography deepened in the late 1950s. He currently lives and works in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 21, 2019
This little book is not a “best of” Duane Michals, but rather an over view of his career. The first photos in this book were taken in 1958 and the last ones in the 1980s. The bulk of the book is taken up by photo series, but there are also stand alone photos. This is understandable as Michals is best known for his series.
There are thirteen series in this book, and they range from eroticism to contemplations on life and death, and religion. The pleasures of the glove, Take one and see Mt. Fujiyama, and The young girl's dream all deal with eroticism, while Christ in New York, The fallen angel, The voyage of the spirit after death, Paradise regained deal with religious aspects. I find Christ in New York quite a interesting piece. In it Michals shows Christ in modern New York. On the other end I find The pleasures of the glove an interesting series dealing with sexual fantasies. Things are Queer is probably the series that I find most interesting in the book. In nine photos Michals seems to be contemplating the borders between reality, and fiction.
The oldest photos are from a trip which Michals took in Russia in 1958. These are the least interesting ones in the book. They are rather typical amateur photos. Subjects usually dead center and very static. In a way some of the series are built up like this, with the subjects dead center, but in the series one has the movement between photos to make them interesting. Looking at the stand alone photos I though the portraits of Marcel Duchamp and Pasolini the best shots in the book.
All in all, an interesting, though slightly short, over view of Duane Michals career during these years. By the way, that is Andy Warhol on the cover.
There are thirteen series in this book, and they range from eroticism to contemplations on life and death, and religion. The pleasures of the glove, Take one and see Mt. Fujiyama, and The young girl's dream all deal with eroticism, while Christ in New York, The fallen angel, The voyage of the spirit after death, Paradise regained deal with religious aspects. I find Christ in New York quite a interesting piece. In it Michals shows Christ in modern New York. On the other end I find The pleasures of the glove an interesting series dealing with sexual fantasies. Things are Queer is probably the series that I find most interesting in the book. In nine photos Michals seems to be contemplating the borders between reality, and fiction.
The oldest photos are from a trip which Michals took in Russia in 1958. These are the least interesting ones in the book. They are rather typical amateur photos. Subjects usually dead center and very static. In a way some of the series are built up like this, with the subjects dead center, but in the series one has the movement between photos to make them interesting. Looking at the stand alone photos I though the portraits of Marcel Duchamp and Pasolini the best shots in the book.
All in all, an interesting, though slightly short, over view of Duane Michals career during these years. By the way, that is Andy Warhol on the cover.
September 13, 2017
This collection of photos are captivating, i found myself entranced deeply with this photo book
November 21, 2025
it’s dependence on the written work that almost make them seem lazy.
January 3, 2017
Un buen resumen del trabajo de este gran fotógrafo a un precio muy asequible.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews