Product Description

Of this satirical look at contemporary photography, Duane Michals has said, "The more serious you are, the sillier you have to be. I have a great capacity for foolishness. It's essential." Whether parodying Wolfgang Tillmans or Andres Serrano, Sherrie Levine (A Duane Michals Photograph of a Sherrie Levine Photograph of a Walker Evans Photograph) or Cindy Sherman (Who is Sydney Sherman?), Michals uses his ferocious wit and keen eye to create images at once humorous and penetrating. As The New York Times described Gursky's Gherkin, the work "explores as never before the sense of picklehood, or what it means to be a pickle." The Times also testified that "this high-humored sendup of arty photography should be required viewing for all art-world heavies, particularly critics, curators and collectors." Michals takes aim at pretensions that are often perceived as deliberately obscuring contemporary art, and in doing so he exemplifies his mastery of both the visual world and the written word, while providing the elemental pleasure of a good laugh.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #667482 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-15
• Released on: 2007-01-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

a manifesto of sorts...
A manifesto of sorts

I'll give it three stars, as it's the sort of book you could read in twenty minutes before passing it on to one of your artist friends. The book reads like a manifesto against contemporary photography. A must read (skim, browse, whatever... for photography students and/or emerging artists) It's cleaver, poignant, humorous, and thought provoking. I doubt Duane's stance is as vitriolic as some might assume. In the end, I think the purpose is simply to open the dialogue about the medium and what it has become. If you are looking for classic Duane Michals, you might want to pick up one of his monographs, though I would argue that this is a D.M. classic. If you are a photographer's photographer (I'm not), Duane has written this for you. I'd like to thank Mr. Michals for speaking up and carrying the torch for good ideas over the pretentious artifice present in so much work today and questioning the art market. Of course, art and the art market are two entirely different things that have nothing (ideally) to do with one another. Incidentally, I met Duane with some of my friends in New York several years ago. He invited us into his home and was incredibly generous with his time as he talked to us wannabe artists and complete strangers. He's a real spitfire and a chivalrous man... Three cheers for Duane... hip hip....

The Death of Duane Michals
This tabloid quality publication marks the demise of a great artist. If anything Duane Michals: Foto Follies will survive as an example of the dredful place to which no artist should ever go.