Michals explores what is hidden, unseen, or outside the frame, which he references in several portraits, such as Andy Warhol (1958) with hands over face and Magritte with Hand Over Face Exposing One Eye (1965). In A Short History of Photography, philosopher Walter Benjamin declared the “optical unconscious” as one of photography’s revelations, the camera’s technical capacity to make visible what usually evades perception. Facing page: Poster for the exhibition features Illuminated Man, 1968. The mirror reflects everything.” Or: “I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection.” He claims that reality is relative: “How do you know that my reflection is the real one? It’s all in your mind, you know. When he plays with “properties” of mirroring, reflections from various angles, as in A Story About A Story (1989), he illustrates the blind spots, boundaries, and limitations of perception. Like Cameron, Michals uses diaphanous drapery to evoke the ethereal, as in Warren Beatty (1967) and Certain Words Must Be Said (1976). She used swirls of drapery to enhance the dreamlike quality of her images. But they never try to photograph what you can’t see.” In the 19th century, British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron utilized similar methods, such as soft focus and low lighting, incorporating chemical stains, fingerprints, smudges, and scratches. He writes: “Photographers feel comfortable photographing what they see. The imaginative challenge for Michals is about using visual images to convey abstract ideas: how to photograph the ephemeral, that which is imaginative, intangible, invisible, or subconscious. In Empty New York: Subway Interior (1964) from his monograph Empty New York, he captured the demimonde of sidewalks at dawn or dusk along with deserted subway stations, diners, storefronts, and vacant theaters (also hauntingly photographed in the 1970s by Peter Hujar and published in 2005 as Night). It is all accomplished within the vernacular of nocturnal cityscapes.

The photographs are deeply affective, whether extracted from an autobiographical core about early childhood at the precipice of trauma or drawn from the psychological realities of modern life, including queer genealogies and experience, such as the iconography of gay-male cruising in Chance Meeting (1970).

I can do the whole thing in about an hour.” However, his work derives from lifelong personal explorations into memory, mortality, temporality, sexual orientation, and spirituality.

So when it comes to the actual shooting time, it’s very easy. Michals scoffs at the necessity for extensive preparation for his sequences.

Soul Style by Duane Thomas