MICHAEL LANG
Grandmother and Child-Thailand, archival giclée print
1942 - 2026
Michael Lang was a Touchstone member-artist since 1999. An accomplished social documentary photographer, his 1957 photo-essay, A Nice Clean Room, focused on a Baltimore poolroom known as Benny’s. He approached the subject as an outside observer, presenting atmospheric images of the poolroom and the people who hung out there using a hand held camera, available light, and black and white film.
Lang returned to the genre 50 years later with an essay, Be: There, about the Be Bar, a lounge in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, now undergoing a rebirth after the riots of the 1960s. Again Lang uses available light and a hand held camera; but now employed digital techniques to capture the stark raw, color of the place and the people. He was always there and not there at the same time, observing the community—the bar tenders, the drag queens, the go-go boys, and the people who gravitate to the atmosphere of the place.
Recent solo exhibitions at Touchstone include: Slow Walking in NY (2015) and THE DRAG ILLUSION (2012).
For additional information visit www.mikelangphoto.com.
Visit tfawdc.org to make a donation to the Touchstone Foundation for the Arts in memory of Mike.
Watching the Parade - Sicily, archival giclée print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20” matboard
Bedouin Girl- Wadi Feiran, Sinai archival giclée print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20” matboard
Thai Phone, archival giclée print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20” matboard
Tattoo, archival giclée print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20" matboard
Mother and Child-Burma, archival gicleé print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20” matboard
Waitress, archival gicleé print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20” matboard
Akha child bathing-Thailand, archival gicleé print, 10” x 15” on 16” x 20” matboard