The photographic establishment were shocked when Michals began writing directly onto his prints in his signature scrawl.īy using sequences instead of capturing a single moment, and juxtaposing the images with his text, Michals really changed modern photography. His own photographs are highly manipulated, moody and philosophical. He didn’t want to work in the steel mills like his father and he left home when he was 17-years-old to study Graphic Arts at the University Of Denver and then served two years in the Army, driving tanks in Germany. Michals grew up near Pittsburgh, part of a Slovakian immigrant family. Sir Elton John owns one the largest collections of Michals’ photographs.
His work has been shown in major galleries and museums around our pretty planet and is considered highly collectible. He is especially noted for two innovations in photography that he developed in the 1960s and 1970s: He uses a series of photographs to tell a story, and he uses hand-written text above or below his photographs, giving information that the image alone cannot convey. His photography often looks at gay themes. He began his successful career with his work for Esquire, Mademoiselle, Vogue and photographing the 1968 Summer Olympics for the Mexican Government. One of my very favorite photographers, Duane Michals is totally self-taught.
“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.”