Faculty
Raised in the Skagit Valley, a farming community in Washington State, Michael became known for his documentation of the 2011 Libyan Civil War and the resulting monograph, Libyan Sugar (2016), which won the 2016 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation First Photo-book award and the 2017 International Center of Photography Infinity Artist Book award. Yo Soy Fidel (2018), his book documenting Cubans observing Fidel Castro’s 2016 funeral procession, was exhibited during the 2018 Recontres d’Arles.
He is currently working on a third monograph, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is also writing a memoir of the years 2009-2019, a transformative period while living between Asia, Africa and the Americas.
As a contributing photographer at National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Time and others, his commercial clients include Chopard, Land Rover, Nike, Sony, Amnesty, HBO and Al-Jazeera.
Michael is a dynamic location photographer whose still and video work straddles the genres of photojournalism, documentary and art.
He excels at providing resourceful, unconventional solutions in challenging situations and locations, the result of having spent 15 years working across six continents including conflict areas in the Middle East and Africa, particularly Central Africa, where he was based for several years.
His passion for utilizing natural light follows from his documentary background and unique ability to quickly deliver strong images in a variety of situations.
