Foto Follies : How Photography Lost its Virginity on the Way to the Bank

Duane Michals’s new book takes a satirical and humorous look at contemporary photography, art criticism and the state of today’s art market. Whether pastiching Wolfgang Tillmans or Thomas Ruff, Andres Serrano, Sherrie Levine or Cindy Sherman, Michals uses his ferocious wit, keen intelligence and great pictorial skill to create picture-stories that are both funny and penetrating, while taking aim at the pretensions that are perceived as deliberately obscuring contemporary art. Michals provides us with a grand parody that exemplifies his mastery of the visual world and the written word. The works brought together in this book – many published here for the first time – demonstrate Michals’s rare ability to be freed of all constraints and preconceptions while remaining true to himself. Duane Michals is one of the most respected photographers at work in the world today. He lives and works in New York City.