Duane Michals- Installation
About:
Duane Michals is an American Photogrpaher. Michals's work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy. In 1953 he received a B.A. from the Universtiy of Denver. After two years in the Army, in 1956 he went on to study at the Parsons School Of Design with a plan to become a graphic designer; however, he did not complete his studies.
He describes his photographic skills as "completely self-taught."
For a number of years, Michals was a commercial photographer, working for Esquire and Mademoiselle, and he covered the filming of The Great Gatsby for Vogue (1974). He did not have a studio. Instead, he took portraits of people in their environment, which was a contrast to the method of other photographers at the time, such as Avedon and Irving Penn.
Though he has not been involved in gay civil rights, his photography has addressed gay themes.
He is noted for two innovations in artistic photography developed in the 1960s and 1970s. First, he "[told] a story through a series of photos" as in his 1970 book Sequences. Second, he handwrote text near his photographs, thereby giving information that the image itself could not convey.
Why I Was Influenced:
I enjoy how Duane Michals work is very controversial and tells stories. For example, he has shot many crotches of men and women to question if society thinks it is art or not. I considered shooting various guys' boners in response to this.
However, I looked more into his story telling series and decided I was more influenced by these images. His series starts with one extreme image and progresses to the other extreme. In my installation project, I went from one extreme: blurry, gray, whole scene to the other extreme: clear, high contrast, one object. I created a gradual change as Duane has done in his series to help guide the viewer through the visual movement.
Duane goes against one of the drawbacks of photography being a form of visual communication by telling a whole story. He does not use various images that are drastically different. He changes each image’s scene slightly to create a sort of comic or story board that the viewer can easily recognize a story. I used this technique in my installation project by moving the camera a little farther away from the sculpture each time I took a shot, to create a slightly gradual change, to lead the viewer from one extreme to the other.
Duane Michals is an American Photogrpaher. Michals's work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy. In 1953 he received a B.A. from the Universtiy of Denver. After two years in the Army, in 1956 he went on to study at the Parsons School Of Design with a plan to become a graphic designer; however, he did not complete his studies.
He describes his photographic skills as "completely self-taught."
For a number of years, Michals was a commercial photographer, working for Esquire and Mademoiselle, and he covered the filming of The Great Gatsby for Vogue (1974). He did not have a studio. Instead, he took portraits of people in their environment, which was a contrast to the method of other photographers at the time, such as Avedon and Irving Penn.
Though he has not been involved in gay civil rights, his photography has addressed gay themes.
He is noted for two innovations in artistic photography developed in the 1960s and 1970s. First, he "[told] a story through a series of photos" as in his 1970 book Sequences. Second, he handwrote text near his photographs, thereby giving information that the image itself could not convey.
Why I Was Influenced:
I enjoy how Duane Michals work is very controversial and tells stories. For example, he has shot many crotches of men and women to question if society thinks it is art or not. I considered shooting various guys' boners in response to this.
However, I looked more into his story telling series and decided I was more influenced by these images. His series starts with one extreme image and progresses to the other extreme. In my installation project, I went from one extreme: blurry, gray, whole scene to the other extreme: clear, high contrast, one object. I created a gradual change as Duane has done in his series to help guide the viewer through the visual movement.
Duane goes against one of the drawbacks of photography being a form of visual communication by telling a whole story. He does not use various images that are drastically different. He changes each image’s scene slightly to create a sort of comic or story board that the viewer can easily recognize a story. I used this technique in my installation project by moving the camera a little farther away from the sculpture each time I took a shot, to create a slightly gradual change, to lead the viewer from one extreme to the other.