Duane Michals
Duane Michals
Duane Michalsis an American photographer. Michals's work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth18 February 1932
CountryUnited States of America
people looks
I don't get straight people, but I understand what they look like.
lying character wrinkles
Most portraits are lies. People are rarely what they appear to be, especially in front of a camera. You might know me your entire lifetime and never reveal yourself to me. To interpret wrinkles as character is insult not insight.
believe reality quiet-voice
I believe in the invisible. I do not believe in the definitive reality of things around us. For me, reality is the intuition and the imagination and the quiet voice inside my head that says: isn't that extraordinary? The things in our lives are the shadows of reality, just as we ourselves are shadows.
beautiful moving thinking
I think that the photographer must completely control his picture and bring to it all his personality, and in this area most photographs never transcend being just snapshots. When a great photographer does infuse the snapshot with his personality and vision, it can be transformed into something truly moving and beautiful.
trying photograph persons
I often try to photograph things about a person that are not visible.
needs term mediums
And in not learning the rules, I was free. I always say, you're either defined by the medium or you redefine the medium in terms of your needs.
believe people looks
I already know what things look like - I don't want description. People believe in appearances, and I don't believe in appearances at all.
long film enough
One of the marvelous things about film is that if you expose it long enough you're going to get a picture.
thinking expression wind
You can never capture a person in picture, never. You might get an interesting expression or gesture. I almost never research a picture subject ahead of time. I think Karsh is full of baloney. Can you imagine spending a whole week out in La Jolla with Jonas Salk soaking up his ambiance, then wind up making him look as if he's in the studio in Ottawa with his thumb under his chin?
sunset looks photograph
I never photograph sunsets and I never photograph moonrises. I'm not interested in what things look like.
art issues addresses
Art has to address eternal issues.
writing way saws
Taking photographs and writing is my way of saying I was here, I saw this, I felt this, I heard this.
photograph
Taking the photograph is the easiest part for me
beautiful art attention
We live in a culture where the one who shouts the loudest gets the most attention. It's not in the vulgar, it's not in the shock that one finds art. And it's not the excessively beautiful. It's in between; it's in nuance.