The Easel

Archives: American Photo

7th June 2015

Selections from Dennis Hopper’s Trove of Drugstore Camera Photos

Some people long to be a film star. Dennis Hopper, who was one, longed to be recognised as a photographer. During the 1960’s he lived in small town New Mexico, where most of these photos were taken. His daughter associates that time with him searching for something. He was between marriages and his career was quiet– after the stardom of Easy Rider, but before Apocalypse Now – in which he was a photojournalist

6th June 2015

Interview: Duane Michals on 50 Years of Sequences and Staging Photos

A large travelling retrospective of Michals’ work continues to attract interest and this early interview is particularly illuminating. Michals is celebrated photographer because he turned away from photography of the decisive moment (Cartier – Bresson) or the perfect image (Steiglitz). Instead he spent a career making small sized prints, often with hand writing on them, that focus on the life of the mind. “I’m not interested in what something looks like. I’m interested in what it feels like”. Some of his famous sequences are here.