Domestic Life Through the Lens: 2. Duane Michals, Death Comes to the Old Lady

 

Duane Michals. Death Comes to the Old Lady. Gelatin silver print. 1969. 

(continued from Domestic Life Through the Lens: 1. While the Baby Sleeps)

To explore this physical and mental process, I used long exposures to visualize both external actions and internal shifts. This contrast between the still environment and blurred movement, illustrates the passage of time and quiet sanctuary of thought.

In the 1960s, Duane Michals (American, b. 1932) created staged sequences that played “on themes such as desire, memory, dreams, and mortality.” In his sequence of five photographs called Death Comes to the Old Lady, Michals casts his grandmother in the role of the 'Old Lady'. By using extended shutter speeds, Michals renders stationary objects in detail while blurring movement, creating a sense of a continuous, ethereal narrative.

To be continued in Domestic Life Through the Lens: 3. Contact sheet for When the Baby Sleeps