Diana Michener: The Puppet Master
Opening reception: Thursday, February 27th, 6-8PM
February 27th, 2025 - May 15th, 2025
Monday - Friday, 2 - 6pm
Image © Diana Michener. Courtesy of the artist.
Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present The Puppet Master, a solo exhibition by Diana Michener.
In The Puppet Master, Michener explores the relationship between a daughter and her father. “The idea led to the creation of a puppet show,” Michener says. “The daughter became the puppet and the father, the puppeteer. They worked together in silence. They did what they wanted. It was a mysterious encounter. They had something in mind, so did I.”
These enigmatic images, prompt the viewer to consider the forces that shape human connections. “Photography lends itself to open narrative,” Michener reflects. “It might not be my specific story you see, but your own, which excites me.”
The exhibition will be on view from February 27 through May 15, 2025.
About the artist:
Diana Michener (b. 1940, Boston) is a photographer and artist based in Paris (France) and Walla Walla (Washington). After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College in New York, she studied with Lisette Model at the New School for Social Research.
Michener has exhibited internationally, including her 2001 retrospective Silence Me at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris, as well as presentations of Morning After Morning at the Photo Museum of Ireland (2001), Dogs, Fires, Me at Pace/MacGill in New York (2005), Figure Studies at Nature Morte in Berlin (2010), and Anima, Animals at Maison Européenne de la Photographie (2016–2017). Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Michener’s numerous publications include Silence Me (Maison Européenne de la Photographie, 2001), Dogs, Fires, Me (Steidl, 2005), 3 Poems (Steidl, 2006), Sweethearts (Steidl, 2009), Figure Studies (Steidl, 2011), A Song of Life (Steidl, 2018), Trance (Steidl, 2020), Twenty-eight Figure Studies (Steidl, 2020), Bones (Steidl, 2022), Mortes (Steidl, 2023), and Mirror (Steidl, 2024).
Mirror (Steidl, 2024) by Diana Michener
Title: Mirror Publisher: Steidl Date: 2024.
Image © Diana Michener/Steidl.
Purchase a copy here.
Acknowledgments
Penumbra's Exhibition Space is supported in part by the Joy of Giving Something.
The Puppet Master was organized by Diana Michener and Leandro Villaro.
Text Editor: Liz Sales. Production: Vishnu Gangaram. Framing: Ashmun Workshop
About Penumbra’s Exhibition Space
Penumbra’s Exhibition Space is a new gallery dedicated to presenting work that advances historic and alternative photographic processes in ways that are as conceptually and socially relevant as they are materially driven. The goal of this space is to foster conversations about the role of photography in contemporary society through curated exhibitions and collaborations.
About Penumbra Foundation
Penumbra Foundation is a non-profit organization that brings together the Art and Science of Photography through education, research, outreach, public and residency programs. Its goal is to be a comprehensive resource for photographers at any level, artists, students, professionals, historians, researchers, conservators and curators. Penumbra specializes in advancing the use of historic and alternative photographic technologies for contemporary image-making.