Above: “This Photograph is my Proof” by Duane Michaels. Click to make it a bit bigger.
By Paul Goldfinger, Photography editor @Blogfinger
Duane Michaels, an important American photographer, is 80 years old, and there will be a retrospective of his work opening in a few days at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
Michaels has been a pioneer in photography by doing two things. The first was handwriting narrative text on his images. He says that the writing “gives information that the photograph could not convey.” Well, so much for a picture being worth a thousand words. His words usually consist of poems or brief stories as seen in the photos above and below.
The second advance was to place multiple photographs in sequence to relate a story. Duane Michaels is a storyteller.
Here is a quote from the Carnegie: “Michaels is cited as being seminally important in his willingness to bend the rules of the medium to suit his own ends. He is credited for broadening our understanding of the philosophical dimensions of photography from the 1960s to today. ”
The picture on top is called “This photograph is my proof.” I think it is enjoyable to read his brief narrative which adds an extra dimension to appreciating his images.
In general, I like my own images to be self explanatory to the point of rarely giving them titles. Just documenting the place and date is usually sufficient for me. I like to use the headline on Blogfinger to say a few cryptic words about the photo, but my goal is to stimulate interest rather than to narrow the experience for the viewer as occurs with Michael’s stories.
However, I actually am drawn to the notion of adding handwritten storytelling to a photograph. It is a fascinating and original idea. Today, most photography is shown on line, and you can’t very well write a handwritten note.
One of the beauties of creating an actual photo print, mounted on a mat board, is that you finish with a tangible work of art that you can hold in your hand. The handwritten note by the photographer adds a hand-made touch. I like to display photographs without frames—just the image on a mat board leaning against the wall or on some sort of easel.
In my blog gallery, I usually add music (“soundtrack”) to my photos to provide an added dimension. Like Michaels, I want to enhance the appreciation of the photograph, but, at least online, I do it with music, which is less specific than a written note. It’s like the soundtrack for a movie.
My idea of accompanying photographs with music is fairly original, although there are precedents. In 2011 we posted a piece about a museum show which featured the photography of Disfarmer accompanied by live music with Bill Frisell.
WARREN VACHE´ and BRIAN LEMON with Harry Warren’s “A Love Affair to Remember.”