MICHAEL PLYLER – ARTIST STATEMENT
I have been making photographs for over forty years. I started making photographs with an Olympus Om-1 35 mm, and now work almost exclusively with a 4 x 5 view camera. I like the slow, meditative approach to making one photograph at a time that working with a view camera necessitates. I value the archival longevity and stability that film provides. I also prefer the notion of a piece of film being a physical “file” that is a tangible object rather than the moving target of an electronic file. After transitioning to a view camera, practicing the precision of Ansel Adams’ Zone System wherein each negative’s development is considered and formulated individually was a “no-brainer” next step. I make silver gelatin, b/w prints in a traditional “wet” darkroom.
I have photographed the Highland Maya of Guatemala since 1982, and 56 pieces of this body of work were placed into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in 2013. I’ve also photographed extensively in Spain and Italy. My work is held in numerous collections including the Heard Museum, the San Diego Museum of Man, The Museum of the American Indian, the Museo Ixchel in Guatemala City, and the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamerica in Antigua, Guatemala.
In 1993 I received one of two Visual Artist Fellowships from the Utah Arts Council. Writer Logan Hebner and myself interviewed and photographed 32 Southern Paiute Elders which started as an exhibit and morphed into the ground-breaking book, “Southern Paiute: A Portrait,” published by Utah State University Press in 2010.
All prints are fiber-based papers processed to museum archival standards including selenium toning. All prints are mounted and matted on archival board and are in numbered, limited editions, mostly in editions of either 15, 20, or 25. Some of the older images (mostly in the Europe and Architecture portfolio) are in editions of fifty. And finally, “The Clutter of Knowledge” is in an edition of 100. If you want to know the edition number of a particular image please email. Each print is numbered in the lower left corner of the over mat, and signed and dated (the date the negative was made) in the lower right corner. Also each print is titled, signed, and dated on the back of the mount board. All prints will be sold UNFRAMED. Shipping charges are found on the price list page. Thank you.
I invite you to explore my imagery on this site and I’ll be happy to answer questions if they arise. Here’s a link to the sample of our Southern Paiute book: