Diana Michener: Twenty-Eight Figure Studies

Numero

Matthieu Jacquet

Known for her numerous black and white series examining the living - and the dead - in its many forms, the American photographer Diana Michener recently published at Steidl not one but two monographic works. A simultaneous dive into two apparently antagonistic series, exploring on one side the intimacy of bodies and on the other the immensity of nature.

Provokr

Sarah Sunday

A black and white exploration of human intimacy and the heightened cognitive euphoria it can evoke, Michener presents photographic stills of subjects from films, suspended in moments of obscured and carnal pleasure. Blurry, grainy, and at times, barely recognizable, figures are portrayed in the private act of intercourse; the imagery unequivocally brazen and emotionally aware.

L'Oeil de la Photographie

Bodies are simplified and blurred, seeping into abstraction and darkness, hinting at yet never embracing explicitness. In images both graphic and impressionistic, Michener’s self-declared goal steadfastly remains “to transform into the visual what is emotional and mental.”

GUP Magazine

Linda Zhengová

Without installing a voyeuristic look, ‘Twenty-eight Figure Studies’ is Michener’s successful attempt to address the ecstasy of life by elevating the violent and raw act into a touching art form.