Duane Michals

Duane Michals (born 1932) is an American photographer. Michals’ innovative, subtle techniques have been highly influential to many photographers for decades, and his works are in major international collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago; International Museum of Photography, Rochester; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington; the Australian National Gallery of Art; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; National Gallery of Canada; and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam. Michals received a BA from the University of Denver in 1953 and worked as a graphic designer until his involvement with photography deepened in the late 1950s.

He is famous in particular for his photo sequences and his portraits: his subjects have included Magritte, Duchamp, de Kooning, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Cornell, and Andy Warhol. He has had many museum retrospectives throughout the world, and is represented in the USA by Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York and in the UK by Hamiltons in London.

In recognition of his contributions to photography, Michals has been honored with a CAPS Grant (1975), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1976), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Art (1989), the Foto España International Award (2001), and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass. (2005).

He currently lives and works in New York City.

Duane Michals - Empty New York

From the moment the Pennsylvania-born Duane Michals settled in Manhattan in 1956 the metropolitan environment in which he found himself exerted a powerful spell on his creative imagination.

In 1964 he began to document New York City in a tantalisingly unfamiliar guise, virtually empty of inhabitants at dawn or dusk. In deeply evocative black-and-white images he depicted storefronts and interiors; deserted stations, subway cars, funfairs and arcades; derelict markets, vacant theatres and diners.

Day after day Michals would rise at dawn to capture unpeopled sidewalks, bridges and parking lots, architectural fragments, the Hudson River, cityscapes in the mist, skyscrapers and urban nature reflected in the puddles of Central Park.

Beautifully realised and now achingly nostalgic, the photographs in Empty New York show us the city frozen in time. A social history and also a photographic reportage, Duane Michals’ pictorial poem reminds us with every frame how he has earned his place among the greats of American photography.

The de luxe edition is limited to 25 signed numbered books accompanied by the signed numbered original photogravures.

Duane Michals - Empty New York II

Enquire about Empty New York II £495 (VAT not applicable)

Duane Michals - Empty New York III

Enquire about Empty New York III £495 (VAT not applicable)

Duane Michals - Texas 1964

Texas 1964 represents an amazing discovery. Duane Michals, one of America’s pre-eminent photographers completed a project in 1964 to depict different aspects of the state of Texas. Michals recently discovered in his archive ‘Duane’s Texas tempest in a teapot treasure trove’, the whole brilliant and resonant portrait of that celebrated state – captivating black-and-white images published here for the first time.

Tender, witty, poignant and truthful, Duane Michals’ Texas 1964 captures a society in some ways unchanged from its first controversial settlement, with its racial divisions and economic and social gulfs, and in others redolent of the new America – commercialised, confident, forward-looking.

Texas 1964 has been designed by Peter Willberg and printed in Italy on 170gsm Gardapat Ultra by SiZ Industria Grafica,Verona.

There are five signed original photogravures by Duane Michals identified by the roman numerals I, II, III, IV and V, each numbered 1/25 to 25/25 with the corresponding roman numeral. They have been printed on 300 gsm Somerset White Velvet at Paupers Press, London.

Copies 1–15 of photogravures I, II, III, IV and V are sold in sets, each set accompanied by a signed and slipcased copy of the de luxe book, numbered Set 1–Set 15.

Copies 16–25 of photogravures I, II, III, IV and V are sold individually, each accompanied by a signed and slipcased de luxe book with corresponding numbering.