“ …I have an eye for the unexpected and the weird ... pattern and serial imagery… asymmetry and heightened color… ”

ARTIST’S STATEMENT #8

 I create signed, limited-edition original photographs, presented in archival materials. I prefer to crop through the lens; I avoid large zooms, I like to get close. A majority of the work is printed in the single size that best suits the image.

I have an eye for the unexpected and the weird; pattern and serial imagery; asymmetry and heightened color. Through digital filters, I often effect transformations in the original image through the manipulation of hue, saturation, line and composition. I often compare the process to improvisation on the piano.  

I occasionally think of myself as a painter with a camera. I believe that any fool can take a good picture -- not every fool knows how or why. 

I am continually inspired by the pastel drawings of Edgar Degas; the watercolors of John Singer Sargent; the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank; and the 19th century Japanese ukiyo-e prints of Hiroshige, Hokusai and Kunisada. 

BIO

In late 2019, Michael Preble returned home to New Orleans. He has been an active photographer since the late 1980s, first publishing his Caribbean photographs with International Voyager Media, Miami. He has exhibited nationally and regionally, including art festivals, galleries and museums, and is included in numerous public and private collections in Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.

His current gallery association is with RHINO Contemporary, 2028 Magazine Street in New Orleans. However, due to the coronavirus, the gallery closed in mid-March; no reopening date is yet scheduled. Previously he showed at the Artists’ Workshop Gallery in historic downtown Hot Springs, wehre he also served as co-curator.  

Michael is also a museum professional, retired in 2013 as Curator and Program Director at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News, Virginia, a position he held since October 2004. Prior to his work in Hampton Roads, Michael was Deputy Director for Programming at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. He has held senior curatorial positions at the Arkansas Arts Center, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, and the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, among others. In addition, he was on the Advisory Arts Committee for the City of Hot Springs (2016-2018). He also served on the screening committee for the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival (2016, 2017). He also served as guest curator for the William Baziotes exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy (2003-2004) and is currently Editor of the William Baziotes Catalogue Raisonné project.

He holds a BA in Art History from Cornell University and an MA in Humanities from California State University, Dominguez Hills, with graduate studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and UCLA. He is married to Anne Guthrie, former historic and city planner. They live with their vizslas Sofie and Jake. Michael calls New Orleans home, where he grew up and attended Newman School.  

For information about Michael's photography or the Baziotes project and to receive a catalogue raisonné form, contact Michael at mpreble@verizon.net; visit him on Facebook; or use the CR link above.