To define Duane Michaels photography under Frederic Stouts categorization of aesthetic, documentary or popular is nearly impossible. Michals embraces his own subjective reality to create images that are beautiful, painful, informative, whimsical, surreal, and grounded. He embraces multiple stylistic choices and breathes life into his photographs with empathy and a relatability. While others have succeeded in presenting the physical experiences of marginalized peoples in urban situations, Michals highlights the mental and emotional experiences of people, and tells a story that is as much defined by his own experiences as it is by the experiences of his subjects.  Michals presents humans as not simply the occupants of the city, or as victims of the city. But instead asks observers to recognize that humans are the city.

Frederic Stout in Photography in the City aims to explain the role that photography has played in representing the city and the experiences of those that reside within it. While it’s debatable as to whether or not Duane Michals should be classified as a street photographer, his representations humanize the city by forcing those looking over his work to empathize with the art. His photos are often characterized by the chicken scratch captions that are handwritten directly on his works. While most captions serve an expository function, Michals carefully selected words add a new dimension to the photos giving them new meaning.

Stout alludes to the role of documentary photography in shining a light on the experiences of urban residents. He emphasizes the role of photographers such as Jacob Riis who titled his collection of works “How the Other Half Lives”, describing the work as: “, a volume of text and photographs that revealed the shameful and socially dangerous conditions of the urban poor and the squalor and moral corruption of the slums and tenements”(Stout, pg. 3). Riis popularized this form of photography but his images invoke a feeling of pity and otherness. Riis perspective is that of an outsider and on occasion maybe deemed as condescending of his subject.

Duane Michals focusses on the human experiences of those that society characterized as sexual deviants. As a gay man coming of age in the 1950’s many of Michals photos highlight the loneliness while simultaneously empowering those that would fall under the the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. While Riis aims to tell the story of others, Michals closeness to the experiences of his subjects allow observers to do more than pity, instead they are given access to the most intimate experiences of both the photographer and the subject, inspiring discomfort but more importantly empathy.

Arguably, Michals most important works on the importance of humans to the urban experience has almost no people in it. Michals photo series “Empty New York” Shows various scenes throughout the city of New York in 1964-65 but the images show nothing but empty streets, and rundown or empty businesses. Not only do these works showcase Michals deep understanding of what Stout refers to as aesthetic photography with his masterful compositions. He also inspires an unsettled experience for viewers by showing scenes that normally would be full of people without. This unique contrast to preconceived notions of the city highlights the critical function of residents in the creation of a living breathing, bleeding and heartbreakingly emotional city.

Photography has served as method of documenting the lived experiences of those within the city. While sweeping cityscapes can inform us of the geography, design, and overall aesthetic they fail to capture the essence of urban existence. Without humans’ cities are hollow and often sanitized. Duane Michals’s groundbreaking photography uses whimsical aesthetic to document the somewhat intangible role that humans play in giving a city its soul. He uses photography to tell the story of urban living, by grounding human experiences we can look at his work and feel the loneliness, the heartbreak, we can fall in love with his characters with nothing more than a few simple panels. His empty New York photo series inspires discomfort with its images of the city devoid of its buzzing populace. Duane Michals photography is aesthetic but more functional, it documents yet embraces its own subjectivity and the emotional elements of its subjects, and it’s popular while also feeling meaningful and solemn.

Stout, F. (2010). Photography and the City. Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, 591–595. Image 1: (1967). Michals, Duane, "This Photo is My Proof" Image 2: (1965) Michals, Duane, "Empty New York"