NOMINATED BY DAVID BRANDON GEETING
28—NEW YORK
Pennsylvania-born Michael Wolever makes images that conjure the surrealist sensation of ’90s filmmaking—soft lighting, monsters wooing girls, and traipsing through the woods unafraid.
“I’ve lived a pretty weird life; I draw a lot of inspiration from my memories of it. Charisma and eyeliner go a long way. My work asks questions about shame, attraction, and melodrama. Am I a perv? Who is allowed to be? Pictures are full of denial, yet they’re often confessions. Photography is a funhouse mirror and, sometimes, a shame ritual.
In no particular order, the things that make a photo exciting to me are wedgies, inhalants, feet, a beautiful animal, a freak of nature, a fetish, Pennsylvania… I’ve confronted cowardice through making pictures, or choosing not to make pictures, analyzing my own intention, and criticizing others’ intention or lack thereof.
I spent a good amount of time not making any pictures at all because I didn’t know how I felt about the culture of it. The technical element of [photography] could become so accessible that there will be a shift toward mass self-awareness in picture-taking. What are we actually doing and why? I think even a beer ad could start to look inward. I’ve certainly become a more critical person, totally preoccupied with what I like or hate, figuring out why, feeling the answer change…”
in your life?
