Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals
Essays
Aug. 11, 2020
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.”