With his vast body of works, ranging across an impressive timespan – Duene Michals has exercised a wealth of knowledge in areas far beyond just the technical aspects of photography. The most masterful manipulation seen in his works is a temporal one, wherein the medium in which he works has remained the same (largely film negatives being developed on silver gelatin photopaper) but the subjects whom appear are well known artists of vastly different periods in the landscape of artistic history. He has featured innovative portraits of people like René Magritte, Warhol and Duchamp; but his own works also use time in their expression.
This is best exemplified through his use of series, and my personal favorite work of his is “Things are Queer” the series which shows disproportionately sized objects interacting with human figures. This features a rather natural progression which the viewer is subjected to, and explores a philosophical aspect of recursion, something most often dealt with in computer science, and other mathematical aspects.
Things Are Queer
1973
Nine gelatin silver prints with hand-applied text
3 3/8 x 5 inches (each image); 5 x 7 inches (each paper)