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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF MICHAEL'S IMAGES

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All Images © Michael Going

Vista Theatre, L.A. 2001

Michael Going has had a lifelong relationship with the camera, beginning when he was a child model in New York City from 1944–47. In junior high, he took an introductory black-and-white darkroom photography course, which he credits with “igniting my interest in photography.” Nonetheless, his parents discouraged him from pursuing this discipline as a career. So after graduating from UCLA in Political Science and doing a two-year tour in the Navy including Vietnam, he decided he didn’t want to work in the corporate world. Thus, he became a social worker. “But I remembered everything I had learned in that photography class about 15 years later,” Going comments. “A light bulb went off, and I wanted to take pictures.” He borrowed a camera, began shooting, “and I haven’t stopped since.”

He’s been a professional photographer for over 36 years, a career that includes teaching, fine art photography and advertising, editorial and corporate work. “The camera has really gotten me around the world,” he says. He’s had photo essays published in Road and Track, TIME, American Way, and Sports Illustrated magazines, and has done major assignments for clients like Hyatt Resorts, Princess Cruises, and numerous others. His fine-art work is in the permanent collections of museums, corporations and private collectors including Maison d’Europeene Photographie in Paris and The Polaroid Corporation Permanent Collection.


A New Expression
In 1978, Going began altering images using a Polaroid SX-70 camera and Time Zero instant developing film. He shot photos with the Polaroid camera on location or in the studio, and used lighting, filtration, and any tools a photographer would use to make a "traditional" image. After the film developed, he used various burnishing tools to press and move across the pliable emulsion on the photograph, which imparted the painterly appearance to his images.

Center Court, U.S. Open Tennis Tournament 1985

Another photographer, Ken Marcus, became somewhat of a mentor to him in this arena. “I saw him alter Polaroids. Here was someone with skill and an eye, and I thought, ‘it’s amazing what you can do.’” This inspired Going, and he continued working in this medium for nearly three decades until Polaroid stopped making the film two years ago. “Initially, it took a while to have any success with it,” he recalls. “I was specializing in corporate annual reports and motorcycle photography—among many other commercial assignments to make a living.” He enjoyed doing Polaroid film manipulation on the side, however, as a creative outlet. He showed some of these images to art directors whom he worked with. “The response was overwhelming,” Going remembers. “They said, ‘this is fabulous, we’ve got to use it,’ and then nothing would happen.” It took years, but Going’s tenaciousness paid off with commercial assignments utilizing his Polaroid image manipulation. “I had a major essay to do for Sports Illustrated to shoot the U.S. Tennis Open, and they gave me an eight-page spread just of photographs.” He also had a commercial assignment for Princess Cruises, which won a New York Art Director’s Gold Award. He was featured in Communication Arts, Photo/Design, American Photographer, PDN, Confetti, Polaroid’s magazine, and many other publications that did covers and feature stories on his innovative images.

More recently, Going has had gallery shows and sells limited-edition large prints of his original Polaroid images. “Now I have a finite body of work,” he explains, “and I’ve had no interest in trying to duplicate it in Photoshop.” He’s been shooting digitally with Canon D-SLRs for the past couple of years, creating an entirely new body of work. Today, his website basically has two components—Polaroid images and his newer digital photographs.

Cover of "Altered Vision"

A Book of His Own
Earlier this year, he self-published a book of his Polaroid images entitled Altered Vision through Blurb. This opportunity came about after Jeff Dunas’ Palm Springs Photo Festival in March/April of 2008. “He invited me to show my Polaroid images there, and one of the perks of being an exhibitor was that Blurb gave the artists a book,” Going says. “This gave me the opportunity to assemble some of my work and put it into book form, and it was an amazing experience on several levels. One, being able to do a book of your own work, and two, the marvels of the digital world—you upload photos to the computer and a week later, you have a published, bound book on your doorstep.”

Altered Vision was published in March 2008. In addition to promoting it on his Website, Going did an e-mail blast that has garnered sales. “I also show it wherever I go,” he explains. And at the time of this writing, he was expecting his first royalty check. In the past, he’s shown his photographs in traditional portfolios, he says, “but there’s clearly an amazing response that you don’t get otherwise when you show a bound book of your work.”

Several years ago, he put together a book dummy to show to publishers. “The only way I could do it was to print photographs out on an inkjet printer and glue them together.” After putting countless hours into this project, as well as an expense of about $600, he produced a “heavy, unwieldy book sample that was constantly falling apart.” It was also very expensive to ship to potential publishers. By contrast, he says, “the first book I did for Blurb cost $35.” When assembling your book, Blurb offers a variety of layout options from which you can select, or you can do your own. They also automatically number the pages.  On their Website, Blurb has a Book Store where current books are all listed, as well as Editor’s Picks. And Going doesn’t have to store an inventory of his book. “It’s really print on demand, and one at a time,” he comments. Blurb does all the shipping, printing and filling of orders.

This has been a great promotional opportunity for his work as well, he points out. “You could use this book as the model to present to a major publishing house,” Going says, “instead of spending countless hours and $600 in ink and paper.” Authors can also check their sales online with Blurb every day. “I’m really thrilled with the whole concept,” he says, adding that he has plans for more books in the future—two featuring his Polaroid images and one of his digital work. “There’s a series I did in downtown L.A. called ‘Drive By,’” Going states.

Kokee, Hawaii 1989

The Gift of Teaching
He says that teaching has become a new passion for him. About 12 years ago, he taught part-time at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. “I enjoyed it very much,” says Going, “but working in San Francisco and living here just became a drag.” When an opportunity arose to teach locally, however, he almost turned it down. “The offer was to teach basic black-and-white photography to teenagers, and I hadn’t been in a darkroom for nearly 20 years,” he laughs. Although he was resistant to the idea initially, he discovered he really enjoyed teaching these kids—mostly ages 13 to 15—in an after-school program at Barnsdall Art Center (part of the Department of Cultural Affairs in Los Angeles).

He teaches two different courses. One is Basic Photography, where students use 35mm manual cameras and learn how to work in the darkroom. The other course is called Beyond Basic, which has proven to be very popular. “I have kids who have taken it from me for two years now,” Going says. Although he’s teaching just part-time, he looks forward to it every week, and has come full circle in many ways. “I think the connection for me is that my junior high school photo class changed my life, although I didn’t know it at the time.”

Going says that he’s “acutely aware of the importance of being an instructor.” He even contacted his former photography instructor from junior high school, and told him what an impact he had on his life. In Going’s class, students learn via hands-on experience. His instruction is also unique because he encourages the students to sell and exhibit their work. Several students have made numerous sales. “They’re very sophisticated photographers and image makers,” he says proudly.


To see more of Michael Going’s work, visit www.goinggallery.com
To preview a copy of Altered Vision, go to http://www.blurb.com/books/234602
To learn more about Blurb, visit www.blurb.com

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CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF MICHAEL'S IMAGES

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