Michael Dweck burst onto the photography scene in 2004 with his stunning
book The End: Montauk, N.Y. (and related exhibitions) in which he documented
the surfing subculture of Montauk, Long Island, evoking a real-world
paradise lost.
In his follow-up to that success, this summer (June 2008) Dweck returns with
his new project Mermaids. The exhibition and accompanying volume feature a
dazzling array of photographs in which the photographer explores the theme
of the female nude submerged in water. The simple sexy elegance and allure
of these images is breathtaking. As Christopher Sweet writes in his
introduction to the book: “Whether diving in the blue refractions of a
swimming pool or suspended like a seraph in the cool, pellucid depths of a
spring or emerging tentatively onto a rocky shore, Michael Dweck’s mermaids
are lovely and aloof and bare of all raiment but for their beautiful manes
and the elemental draperies that surround them. Water, light, and lens
converge to capture in modern guise the elusive creature of myth.”
The exhibition and book celebrate the modern mermaid, as represented by
beautiful young women who appear very much at home in the water. When Dweck
went to check out the Weeki Wachee Spring, home of the famous mermaid shows,
as a possible location for his mermaids project, he met a local young beauty
who had been raised in Aripeka, an island fishing village on the coast
nearby, and began photographing her. She had spent all her life in and on
the water—the water was her playground. Through the first girl, Dweck met
other island girls—so-called “waterbabies”—some of whom could hold their
breath underwater for as long as five or six minutes. He photographed them
alone, together, and at play, but mostly at night in the depths of the Weeki
Wachee River. Dweck also photographed in Montauk, Amagansett, and Miami, and
the new images, while often abstracting the female body in a painterly swirl
of watery refractions, celebrate the physical charm of the female form and
the transformational effect that is achieved by the shedding of clothes and
psychic baggage in the meditative isolation of the underwater world.
In Dweck’s first body of work, he drew inspiration from his teenage years
spent by the beach on Long Island and captured the vanishing surf culture of
Montauk. Mermaids also has its origins in Dweck’s years on Long Island where
he often went night fishing along the south shore and off Montauk. Out on
the water on moonlit nights he was intrigued by the shadowy shapes of fish
passing swiftly by just under the surface, and he imagined those fleeting
forms to be beautiful women—the ancient allure of the mermaid.
Michael Dweck was born in Brooklyn, raised on Long Island, and studied fine
arts at the Pratt Institute. From there, Dweck began his career in
advertising in which he went on to become a highly regarded Creative
Director receiving over 40 international awards, including the coveted Gold
Lion at the Cannes International Festival. Two of his long-form television
pieces are part of the permanent film collection of The Museum of Modern Art
in New York. Having taken up photography at an early age and used
photography throughout his career, he left advertising to focus on
photography full time.
Dweck’s compelling images have appeared in numerous publications throughout
the world, including Vanity Fair, French Vogue, and Esquire. His photographs
were first showcased at Sotheby’s, New York, in 2003, in their first solo
exhibition for a living photographer, and have been exhibited extensively
throughout the world. His work is shown at Staley-Wise Gallery in New York,
Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles, Eric Franck Fine Art in London, Maruani
& Noirhomme Gallery in Belgium, and Robert Morat Galerie in Hamburg. His
upcoming solo exhibitions in 2008 will feature the work from Mermaids and
will tour galleries throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Michael
Dweck lives in New York City.
Published by the Ditch Plains Press, the first edition of Mermaids is
limited to 2,000 casebound copies. There is also a signed limited edition of
100 copies, each copy of which is in a matching linen-covered clamshell box
and includes a signed color print by the artist. The limited edition is be
available only through the photographer’s galleries.