Duane Michals American, 1932- Although believing reality to be invisible, Duane Michals has used his camera to give photographic credulity to myths, fantasy, spirits, and dreams. His innovative narrative sequences question nothing less than the nature of truth. Michals (born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania) studied at the University of Denver (B.A., 1953) and Parsons School of Design in New York (1956–57). Self-taught as a photographer, he made his first portraits in 1958 while on a trip to Russia and established himself commercially upon returning to New York City. He has continued to maintain an active commercial freelance career, completing assignments for Vogue, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Horizon, and Scientific American magazines. In 1964 Michals began making personal images; his earliest scenes included empty cafes, buses, stores, and laundromats. Two years later, he started his first sequence. Influenced by surrealist painters such as Rene Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico, Michals addresses sexuality, death, and spirituality in open-ended narratives, relying on the artifice of drama to straddle the line between fact and fiction. Devices such as multiple exposures and blurred focus add to his witty questioning of photographic veracity. In 1971 he began to accompany his sequences with handwritten texts, presenting series geared to the book form. Michals's major publications include Sequences (1970), The Journey of the Spirit after Death (1971), Things Are Queer (1973), Chance Meeting (1973), Paradise Regained (1973), Take One and See Mount Fujiyama and Other Stories (1976), Real Dreams (1977), Homage to Cavafy: Ten Poems by Constantine Cavafy/Ten Photographs by Duane Michals (1978), and Upside Down, Inside Out and Backwards (1993). His work has been shown internationally, with one-person exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1970), the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (1989, European tour), and the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego (1990, national tour). Michals has received a New York Creative Artists Public Service Grant (1975), fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976) and the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts (1978), the Medaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris (1982), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Art (1991), an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society, Bath (1992), the Century Award from the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego (1993), and a gold medal for photography from the National Arts Club, New York (1994). He taught as the Meadows Distinguished Visiting Professor at Southern Methodist University (1989) and received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the Art Institute of Boston (1993). Michals lives in New York. A.W.