Mark Michaelson: The Least Wanted (English Version)
September 4th, 2006 por eunice szpillman
Mark Michaelson
Least Wanted
INTERVIEW FOR POPCORN
eunice szpillman: Hello, Mark. First of all I want to thank you for agreeing to this interview. I must say that I’m very impressed with the huge amount of mugshots you have in your collection. I’ve read that there are around10.000 and that you started 10 years ago with a gift from a friend: The Patty Hearst mugshot. Were you interested in photography before starting this collection? In fact, what is your profesional profile?
M: I’ve been an editorial art director in new york for over 25 years. i’ve worked for a wide variety of magazines including newsweek, high times, entertainment weekly and allure. i’ve always loved the medium of photography and over the years i’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the best photographers around. plus i’m a pack rat, and i always stashed away tons of odd and interesting ephemera that crossed my desk.
e: You have more than 700 pictures of your collection on your Flickr site, and a PDF version of your book online. Is this project ascribed to any kind of Creative Commons liscence? Or is there another reason for doing that?
M: I have purchased and collected these artifacts but i don’t feel that i own the rights to the image. i feel like a caretaker or a curator. i want these pictures to be seen, these stories to be told. so i don’t mind people having free access to the images.
e: I’ve read in the prologue of your book, by Bob Nickas, that some of your pictures were bought on eBay. I’ve tried to look for some mugshots to see what kind of material could I find, but it was very difficult to find original pictures… How much was the most expensive picture you’ve purchased? Are there real bidding battles for those items?
M: They are out there but the good ones are hard to find. and occasionally the bidding gets pretty heated for certain items. i’ve developed offline relationships with several dealers and collectors from around the us, and they let me know when they see the kind of stuff i like. sometimes i run across an intact ledger volume of mugshots from some prison or police station, hundreds of pages of old mugshots. i’ve paid many thousands of dollars for these.
e: And, where did you get the rest of mugshots? Have you had any problems accessing the police register? Or do these pictures become public with time?
M: These are municipal documents that in america are part of the public domain. they are not meant to be in circulation. they are meant to be destroyed when they are obsolete. that is why they are so rare. i always make it very clear that i believe that just because a mugshot photograph was taken does not mean that a crime was committed or that the subject is guilty of anything.
e: I suppose that only original pictures have real value. Or do copies and reproductions also have value?
M: In addition to collecting the originals, i am very interested in using the mugshots as subject matter in art and graphic design. i have done a book with steidl and it came out great, i want to make more book projects. i have also enlarged several portraits for a series of prints that will be shown along with selections from the collection, at the steven kasher gallery in new york starting september 14.
e: You’ve been compared with Andy Warhol, because both of you are collecting lives, do you agree?
M: Andy is very important to me and i can understand the comparison about collecting people. but more important is how andy, and duchamp before him, taught us to find the beauty in the banal. the mugshots are found objects. readymades. pop art.
e: Apart from anonymous people, the book talks about a sentimental filter. What kind of people pass through that filter?
M: All kinds really. there’s no specific type. its just ‘that certain something.’ i know it when i see it.
e: I suppose that it’s impossible not to feel empathy for the people in your collection, and think about their destinies, or why the mugshots were taken, if they were guilty or innocent, how old were they, what crime they were accused of, since there are a lot of mugshots without any data. Nickas says that you are like an archeologist digging up fragments of past lives. Do you feel the same? Do you feel especially closer to some people due to the history their faces tell?
M: Nickas was right. i do feel like an archeologist. it kills me to think about the enormous amounts of material that’s been destroyed over the years. history is written by the powerful and these people and their stories aren’t usually included.
e: In your collection we can see a lot of people posing in front of the camera. The fact that these people were turned into models and forced to pose in front of the camera for a photographer that probably doesn’t like photography and is also forced to take the picture, is very unusual. How do you think that this fact influences the final result of the pictures?
M: This is the difference between mugshots and the passport photo or the driver’s license. whether or not the subject is in fact guilty, there is trouble at the moment that the shutter snaps. richard avedon would, famously, cause his subjects to become uncomfortable before his camera. their discomfort would inevitably reveal something hidden beneath the surface. i think that happens with the mugshots
e: I’ve noticed that some of the pictures seem to have an artistic sensibility, or maybe it is just functionality. I’m talking about the pictures taken with a mirror to get the profile of the people in the same frame. What called your attention to them and have you decide to include them in the book?
M: Using the mirror to show the profile is such a beautiful idea. and the resulting portraits really have a surreal quality. there were many police photographers that had great talent.
e: And finally, with the publication of your book, and the exhibition, do do you feel you have finished pursuing these records of lives? Or are you going to continue with your collection?
M: I can’t imagine stopping. i would like to continue collecting and preserving the originals. i also look forward to finding new ways to show the pictures and tell their stories.
e: Thanks a lot for your answers, Mark, and congratulations for your project. Good luck with your book and the exhibition.
[+] Spanish Version
