Michael Horsley

About the Artist

Michael Horsley is a Washington DC based visual artist  working primarily in photography, who has explored many creative disciplines, such as filmmaking, theater/performance art, graphic design and music. He has been a member of I am Eye filmmaking collective, RicnMikenBill performance group, Theater du Jour, curator of KinoRama film series, and Fraudulent Productions. His work has been broadcast on BBC America, MSNBC, and WETA, and exhibited in the Library of Congress, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, as well as numerous art spaces. His work has been published in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and the Washington Post, and reviewed in ARTnews, WETA’s Around Town, Washington Post, and the Washington City Paper. He has studied, performed, and collaborated with: musicians Robert Fripp, Bert Lams, and Tony Geballe; artists Michael Platt, Mark Power, Kerik Kouklis, and Frank Diperna; and performing artists  Silvana Straw, B. Stanley, and George Kaperonis.      

Artist's Statement

The guiding principle of my photography is to explore what is behind the objective subject matter to reveal a deeper context. An artist is challenged to see beyond what the camera can see, to reveal the inner character of what is captured, and to use the tools of craft to allow the subject matter to speak on its own terms. I found this the hard way by trying too much. It is natural to be influenced by one’s artistic predecessors, to work within well worn genres, rebel and conform, till the technique becomes second nature and no longer gets in the way of expression. Go back to the masters when stuck, copy them until you are sick of it, and then seek honesty in the work. So many photos are of things: old rusting cars in a field; vibrant colorful sunsets; squirrels, ducks, and trees; cemeteries, old buildings, and exotic locations. Very few photographs are about something, but you know it when you see it. As the old saying goes: “show don’t say”.