Duane Michals was born in McKeesport, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where he took studio art classes at the Carnegie Institute. He received a BA from the University of Denver and attended Parsons School of Design in New York City. Michals's photographic career commenced in 1958, when he travelled to Russia with a borrowed camera and made portraits of people on the streets. Over the following decades, he worked as a freelance photographer for magazines including Vogue, Esquire, Mademoiselle and Life, doing fashion photography and portraits. Michals was made an Officier in France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993, and he was honoured with the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Art, in 1989, and the Foto España International Award in 2001. He lives and works in New York City.
Subjects include: Johnny Cash
Eartha Kitt
The Mamas and the Papas
Barbra Streisand
Tom Waits
John Cassavetes
James Coburn
Robert Duvall
Joel Grey
Dustin Hoffman
Dennis Hopper
Jeremy Irons
Hildegarde Knef
Veronica Lake
Michael Richards
Meryl Streep
Donald Sutherland
Tilda Swinton
Liv Ullmann
Robin Williams
George Balanchine (and NYC Ballet principals)
Francis Ford Coppola
Martin Scorsese
Balthus and Setsuko
Charles and Bertha Burchfield
Joseph Cornell
Edward Gorey
Mary Frank
David Hockney
Jasper Johns
Willem de Kooning
René Magritte
Alice Neel
Richard Tuttle
Andy Warhol
Authors: John Ashbery
John Cheever
E. L. Doctorow
Lillian Hellman
Stephen King
Norman Mailer
Philip Roth and more