Duane Michals - Paradise Regained, 1968
Sequence of six gelatin silver prints
Below is a set of
six photographs taken by the world famous American photographer, Duane Michals.
The set of six individual images have been put into a photo-sequence to create a
photographic narrative, illustrating the true authenticity of what us humans
actually are, when we are striped from our false appearance that we apply to
our every day lives to create a mockery of something that is in fact,
inaccurate.
In the images, a young
man sits with his hands lightly folded while a woman stands behind him. The
room is spare and both are fully clothed. From one image to the next the two
people in the frame, appear with fewer clothes, whilst at the same time small
trees are emerging into the scene dotting around them. In the final image the
trees have grown to surround the now fully unclothed couple. This is man in his
true state, the original man, Michals believes, saying, "When we get rid
of the hip clothes and the furniture and are taken out of our air conditioned
cars we are essentially like Rousseau's savages."
My own Photo Story/Narrative –
Obsession
Sequence of six digital black & white images
Below is a photo-sequence
I have created myself, using Duane Michals work as a great influence &
inspiration. I know it doesn’t have the same explanation and meaning behind it
as Michals Paradise Regained, but it does however, mirror a certain similarity
which is seen throughout the two sets of sequences. This is the matching
character of something increasing in the images, and becoming large in
quantity, whilst at the same time something in the frame has been sacrificed,
becoming more and more scarce as the images go on. For example in Duane Michals
Paradise Regained, the amount of trees increase & the subject’s cloths decrease.
In my sequence, the number of cameras increase and the amount of money in my
wallet decreases! The story actually pretty much reflects my own life, in which
I have recently developed more & more of an obsession to collect
cameras. The sequence starts off with an
image of just one camera & a wallet full of money, and gradually,
photo-by-photo, the quantity of cameras increases whilst the prominence of the
wallet and the amount of money decreases in each frame. The final image shows a huge collection of cameras (which by
the way isn’t my full collection) and sadly no money left in the wallet.
Below is each
individual image…
