Press Release For Immediate Release
Contact: Elize Mazadiego, March 10, 2006

Duane Michals: Past and Present

April 6, 2006 through May 20, 2006
Opening Reception Thursday, April 6, 7-9 pm

The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of photographs by Duane Michals entitled Past and Present.  The exhibition features Michals’ earlier silver gelatin photographs as well as his more recent venture into color photography.  The show highlights two series from Michals’ latest body of work: “The Adventures of Constantine Cavafy” and “Ukiyo-e: Pictures from the Floating World.”  Comprised of Michals’ widely recognized sequential narratives in 5x7 inch silver gelatin photographs, the “Cavafy” series depicts fictitious scenes from the life of Greek poet, Constantine Cavafy.  This thematic exploration evokes desire, friendship, and faith through visual tales and narratives that simultaneously affirm and contend with these intrinsic human needs. The “Ukiyo-e” series are 11x14 single images made as chromogenic color photographs, a first in Michals’ career. These photographs, accompanied by hand-written prose and poetry, are influenced by traditional Japanese aesthetics and metaphysics as they capture each experience and moment as paralleled only in the most sublime Japanese haiku.

Duane Michals’ innovative and unconventional approach to photography has set him apart as an artist, redefining the ways in which we think about the medium. For Michals, it is the essence of expanding our understanding of what is real and of visualizing what is felt and experienced but not always seen. “The things that interested me were all invisible, metaphysical questions: life after death, the aura of sex - it’s atmosphere rather than the mechanics - these are things that you never see on the street. So I had to invent and make these situations to express and explore these things.” (Duane Michals, The Essential Duane Michals) His career has pushed the boundaries of the traditional notions of photography.  The sequential format provided him the ability to convey an imaginative narrative. His application of hand written text further enriches the photographic medium in untraditional ways, opening more possibilities to express the metaphorical and abstract themes so quintessential to Michals’ work.

Duane Michals was born in McKeesport, Philadelphia on February 18, 1932. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in art education from the University of Denver in 1953 and was first employed as a graphic designer.  After visiting Russia in 1958, he developed an interest in photography as he took simple portraits of the local people throughout his travels with a borrowed camera from a friend. With no formal training, Michals has made significant contributions to the field of photography by reinterpreting how the audience views and reads a photograph through his multiple frame narrative sequences and the use of verse to accompany or adorn the work itself.  Over the past four decades, Michals’ work has been exhibited all over the world. His work has been widely published, and his fine art photography can be found in permanent collections in some of the most prestigious art institutions in the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Duane Michals will conduct a lecture at Art Center College of Design on Wednesday, April 5,
7:00 p.m.  Art Center College of Design, Hillside Campus, Ahmanson Theatre, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103; 626- 396-2200.