“I mostly use an Olympus XA4 Macro and a Chinon Zoom 3000 Wide. The film stock I usually use is Kodak Colour Plus 200. Sometimes I use Portra 400 if I can afford it. “
– Michael Walsh
This profile is unabashedly on an up and coming and very new photographer. I enjoy focusing on all stages of an artist’s path. For that reason, I am excited to share Michael’s work with the Lula Community and the world.
I met Michael when I was hosting group meditations at The Institue Of Traditional Medicine in Toronto. I had little idea about what he did, but I was immediately impressed by his humor and kindness. As a photographer, those same qualities shine. It’s funny how a photographer’s work can do an exceptional job of revealing character or spirit.
Michael has the not uncommon gentle and sharp demeanor of an artist, softly letting the conversation and the stimulation roll by and always metabolizing what is observed for later use in his work.
When I started to see his pictures on Instagram with consistency and showing a growing vision, I knew he was genuinely bonding with his cameras and working with passion, enthralled with the process of photo-taking freshness. There is just something ineffable about people who have the eye. They may or may not develop the craft in all of its depth, but it’s a different story without that special lens and human touch.
I believe we all have the potential to relax into that sharp and intuitive sense. It comes naturally for some, and for some, that is all there is. Time sorts out if one takes it further.
Michael is at that enviable stage where the muse and the falling in love with photography seep from his work. I see the language of cannonized street and abstract photography flowing out of an open and naturally contemporary eye. His biographically, playful photographs feel like they’ve been smuggled in for us. They feel like an old soft pornography shoot where the camera missed the targets, but something very ethereal and contemplative lives in them aswell. They feel honest.
For me, the saturation, contrast, candy coded fun, and glossy but grimy world he plays with are a perfect voice to capture a London and life I want to exsist. The moments where nature, the accident of shapes and angles, and stumbled upon objects are made into meaningful and poetic sculptures that feel like an editorial but are happy to live outside of one. His are images that sit like urban postcards from everyday life, both familiar and totally romantic.
I asked Michael to send me some of his work, and I also pointed out a few photographs that I thought would capture this young artist best for the Lula community.
I hope you enjoy the little window this up and coming photographer has opened for us as much as I do. Wherever Michael takes his passion I am glad he started down the road.
I’m a Canadian living in London. I always carry 2 cameras around with me.
– Michael Walsh
Josh Reichmann
September 2020
Author
Elevate Your Vision
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