Artist Statement:
Sin Tiempo, which means “without time” in Spanish, is an ongoing series, or perhaps it is better called an exercise in seeing. I have long been fascinated by timeless imagery in a modern world. To me that means finding visual snippets, vignettes, corners, walls, portraits, etc. that do not reflect popular culture. I don’t like to include any graphics, fashion, hairstyles, cars, architecture, etc. that date the image as being from the 80s, 90s, 2000s or whenever.
I’m not as concerned, in this series, with social commentary as I am in expressing my own aesthetic taste. I see these images, and all my photography, as personal expression…a reflection of myself and of my voice. I believe that the pictures I make and show say as much about myself as they do about the particular subject. I feel the same way about the manner in which the pictures are made…if you believe your art to be your personal expression, then I believe that every aspect of how the work is made is important.
For me that means what I call “tactile photography,” meaning that the work is very touchable from start to finish. I load the film canisters into the camera, stretch the film into place, it is processed in chemistry on stainless steel reels in stainless steel tanks. It is dried in the air and considered through light and glass, cut with scissors, and printed onto fibrous paper.
To me, this is completely different than digital photography, which can be made and finished and uploaded into its final form without ever existing as something that can be touched.
Biography:
Michael Crouser was born in Minneapolis in 1962, grew up in Hopkins, and graduated from St. John’s University (Collegeville, MN) in 1985. Soon afterward, he opened his first commercial photography studio in downtown Minneapolis.
Later, while living in Brooklyn, New York, Crouser’s first book, LOS TOROS (Twin Palms Publishers 2007), was published to much acclaim, earning first prize in the category of Fine Art Book in the 2008 International Photography Awards. He went on to publish two subsequent books, DOG RUN (Viking Studio 2008) and MOUNTAIN RANCH (University of Texas Press 2017), which was a finalist for both a Colorado and Minnesota Book Award.
In 2012 Leica Gallery in New York hosted the exhibition “Michael Crouser: A Mid-Career Retrospective", and in 2014 Crouser was awarded the George Eastman/Power of the Image Award in Beijing, China.
Michael’s work can be found in the permanent collections of several museums, including The Museum of Fine Art - Houston, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The University of Maine Museum of Art and The Eiteljorg Museum, and he has exhibited throughout the US, as well as in Europe and Asia.
He has taught his popular photography courses in New York at the International Center of Photography, at The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, and at the Mpls Photo Center. He currently lives in Minnetonka with his wife Maria and their son Conrad.
