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Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals

Stories Aug. 11, 2020
People walk in a large exhibition with framed black and white photos on a wall. Behind them is a black wall with the word "storyteller" in white. A board with illegible text hangs from the wall.
Installation view of Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals at Carnegie Museum of Art, 2014. Photos: Bryan Conley
A black and white photo of a person facing the camera and holding their hand up to their mouth and shouting. Colorful flowers float out of the person's mouth.
Duane Michals, Primavera, 1984, Carnegie Museum of Art: Henry L. Hillman Fund, © Duane Michals
A photo of a large pickle sitting on a white plate against a white background
Duane Michals, A Gursky Gherkin is Just a Very Large Pickle, 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art: Henry L. Hillman Fund, © Duane Michals
For me, the hardest part is not taking the photograph. That’s the easiest part. The hardest part for me is to decide, what do I really feel? What intrigues me? And then, how do I pull it together?
Duane Michals

In 2014, Carnegie Museum of Art opened Storyteller, the largest retrospective ever mounted of the work of Duane Michals showcasing 155 different artworks. Born in 1932 and raised in McKeesport, Pennsylvania in a steelworker family, Michals was a pioneer in the 1960s when he broke away from established traditions of documentary and fine art photography. Not only did he add handwritten messages and poems to his prints, but he also resisting the dominance of a single image by often creating sequences of multiple images to convey a visual narrative. “I’m more and more aware of myself as being a storyteller,” Michals expressed. “I like it. I do this best.”