Touching Feeling with C.P. Cavafy and Duane Michals (original) (raw)

is an Ameican a"t'st. a gay man, and an early pioneer of what the cr.tic A, D. Cojeman once termec 'the d.rectorial mod& in photography. By thrector,aJ, Coleman meant an approach to image making in which 'the photographer consciously and intentionally creates events for the express purpose of making images thereof. This may be achieved by intervening in ongoing 'real' events or by staging tableaux."1 That is, Michals is not concerned with obotocraDhic "realism," capturing things or events in thenselves: rather. ne arranges tne external worlc into a composition. His work has a cinematic cuality, with Michals acting as a film director. often stoyooarding images into a rarrat,ve seqjence. Typically, his photos are accompanied by handwritten captions, which brings the images into focus as intimate, tactile objects.2 Beyond cinema, however, Michals's work is also theatrical in the specific relation it creates with its viewer His highly artilicial images confront the beholder dis tancing or interrupting our ability to see them as natura'