"I often try to photograph things about a person that are not visible."
~ Duane Michals
Michals has been pushing the boundaries of photography and the static image since the early 1960s. Frustrated by the still photograph, he transforms that tension into something electrifying. He compels us to look closer, to uncover truths we didn’t know existed.
Why is this photograph, on the surface a simple image, still so powerful? Perhaps it is because Michals is revealing a longing for liberation. We all imagine seeing the world from a fresh vantage—soaring like a bird, surveying the vast terrain below.
There’s an exhilarating, almost transcendent quality in that sensation. The photograph captures this yearning for more, lifting our spirit and sparking our imagination. It’s intimate and expansive, subtle and profound, all at once.