Michael flomen biography

Michael Flomen (born 1952) is a.
Michael Flomen was born in Montreal in 1952.
Michael Flomen is a self-taught Canadian artist who primarily creates photograms, or cameraless photographs in collaboration with nature.

•

Michael Flomen

Michael Flomen was born in Montreal in 1952. He began making photographs in the late sixties and has been showing his work on several continents since 1972. He served as a darkroom printer and collaborator for many artists, including for the Jacques Henri Lartigue travelling exhibition that toured Canada and the United States in the mid seventies.

Details, Flomen’s first book of street photographs, which was inspired by Henri Cartier Bresson’s formalist approach to picture taking, was published in 1980. Still Life Draped Stone, which includes twenty-six black and white street photographs, followed in 1985.

Flomen switched to a large-format camera in the early nineties in order to photograph snow, a project that led to the publication Rising issued in 2000. For the last fifteen years, this self-taught artist has been using cameraless techniques to work directly in nature. Natural elements, including water, the light emitted by fireflies, wind, and other natural phenomena are the inspiration for his picture making.

Michael Flomen’s work is represented in twe

•

MICHAEL FLOMEN

Born in 1952, Montreal - Canada

The use of cameraless photogram techniques by Michael Flomen in nature achieve a balance whereby nature is a co-participant in the photo process. Nature is no longer objectified, with each biological element segregated and categorized. Instead the various elements interact with each other and a holistic integrity of interlinked events, a dynamics that is nature becomes the common thread through all these photograms. Human, plant and animal worlds come together in the visual flux of each photogram. Flomen continues to evolve the language of his photography. His recent photograms combine the phenomena that are constantly occurring in nature, whether the actions of water, light, air or other external physical elements. He does so with an ingenious hands-on approach that contrasts the passive photographic role of simple documentation. His approach is less egoistic in its understanding of the photographer’s role, in that it engages in a visual discourse that questions our place in the universe …

•

Michael Flomen CV (PDF)

Biography

Michael Flomen was born in Montreal in 1952. He began taking photographs in the late ’60s, and has been showing his work on several continents since 1972. He has been a darkroom printer and collaborator for many artists including for Jacques Henri Lartigue’s traveling exhibition in Canada and the United States in the mid ’70s. Flomen’s first book of “street photographs,” which followed the Cartier-Bresson formalism of photographic picture making, was published in 1980, followed by Still Life Draped Stone in 1985. Flomen switched camera formats in the early ’90s, photographing snow and producing works under the title RISING. For the last 25 years, this self-taught artist has used camera-less techniques to collaborate with nature. Various forms of water, firefly light, wind, and other natural phenomena are the inspiration for his picture making. Michael Flomen’s work is in the collections of George Eastman House, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Norton Museum of Fine Art, the Philade