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| Duane Michals |
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Duane Michals has been making photographs since the late 1950s, and he has always remained true to his highly individual way of working as he constructs his poignant, poetic, thought-provoking pictures and picture stories. Often presented in narrative sequences, these are typically complemented by manuscript texts that underline with wit and an elegant lightness of touch the philosophical themes that are central to the photographs. Michals’s work has depth and a wry intelligence that effectively steers his sensitive observations on central aspects of human experience—yearning, ambition, vanity, vulnerability, and loss—away from any hint of the pompous or pedagogic.
The small formats, and even the black and white that he favors, have become unfashionable to a photographic community in thrall to the contemporary art world, where color predominates and pictures are regularly judged by their high-impact potential to “hold the wall.” Though Michals may feel a complete indifference to fashion and a certain scorn for the perceived wisdoms of the art market, he has been tempted to express his bemusement through teasing satire—and to great effect. His sequence “Who is Sidney Sherman?” is a mischievous send-up of the hype and intellectual pretension that can exist in the academic-curatorial world and that can ultimately cloud people’s ability to engage their instincts and emotions. The first “self-portrait”—in totally unconvincing drag—bears the caption “Sidney paints his fingernails shocking pink, a brilliantly audacious gesture that exposes the discorroborative bias of Revlon’s vacuity, while trenchantly confirming lipstick as a phallic ploy of alpha males vis-à-vis Derrida’s strategies of discorroboration, while disorienting in a dizzying maelstrom of contradiction.” Point made.
The triangular relationships that Michals sets up between images, words, and ideas make him a maverick operator in a community that has traditionally preferred its photographers to play by the rules and to conform to the precepts of photography “pure” and “straight.” But challenging perceptions and expectations, questioning all givens, is central to Michals’s personality and to his art. He makes words and pictures work toward something that becomes greater than the sum of the parts. And since his own words can be so effective, it is perhaps foolish to fumble toward ways of evoking him. It is better to allow him to speak for himself. He does so persuasively, with warmth and with humor.
I well recall my first meeting with Michals in London on the occasion of a talk he gave at Hamiltons Gallery during an exhibition of his work. He proved himself a totally engaging and inspirational speaker, and the echo of his spoken words gave a special resonance to the text that accompanied one particular image in the show. This made a lasting impression on me and is worth quoting in full. The work was titled “Arcadia.” The text explained: “While wandering in Arcadia, I chanced to meet myself as a young man. He asked me if I knew the things in life he should pursue. I thought then answered as best I could. If I were young again and you, I would will my mind to always be free for truth flourishes in freedom, and it is the root of integrity. The search for truth flourishes in unfettered serendipity’s surprise. Stay free to risk the possibilities of life. Be free of the fear of failure, since true failure is to be afraid to fail. Remember now never happens twice, and fate is never late. Free yourself from thewant of things, and find happiness in nothing, for only nothing lasts. Life is a great question, but no question can be answered till it is asked. That is your task, to free your curiosity and ask of me impossible questions, whose answers can be seen in the twilight of my imagination’s dreams, where I invent the meaning of everything.” Duane Michals has never stopped asking questions nor stimulating others to do the same.
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