This piece by Duane Michals comprises nine photographs, each one a detail of the one that follows. The first shot shows a bog-standard bathroom. Then the camera pulls back to reveal what is either an oversized man, or an undersized bathroom: the man’s foot is the size of the lavatory-bowl. During the ensuing sequence, it emerges that the photograph of the man in the tiny bathroom is itself a picture in a book being read by another man in an alley. Then it turns out that the man reading the book in the alley is also a picture of a picture in a frame which is hanging on a wall. The final twist in this circuitous tale is the revelation that this picture of the man reading the book in the alley is itself a picture hanging on the original bathroom wall. Things are Queer neatly challenges the viewer’s assumptions about the photographic version of reality. The sequence taken as a whole has a cheeky intrigue – at no point can we actually identify the perspective of the camera, the reality of each shot is superseded by the next.

Francesco

Laureato in biblioteconomia, autore del volume sull'editoria underground italiana dal titolo "Underground: ascesa e declino di un'altra editoria 1966-1977" edito da Costa & Nolan e già collaboratore della rivista di collezionismo "Vintage" con una rubrica sulla poster art.