the Michael

Donovan

What I do for you

  1. Shoot or license work for your company or brand (commercial)

  2. Shoot and make art with you, your friends, or your family (private commission)

  3. Provide sick art for your collection and home (wall art, zines, books)

  4. Make fresh wearables for going out (hoodies and shirts)

  5. Make work for you just to enjoy (watch the videos, look through the archives, follow on social, sub to newsletter, listen to playlists, etc)


What I do overall

  • PROFESSION:
    Commercial and Fine Artist.

  • OUTPUTS:
    Photo, video, mixed media.

  • MEDIUMS:
    Photography, video, design, collage, illustration, digital.

  • WORK PERFORMED:
    Campaigns, Editorial, Portrait, Fine Art.

  • GENRES:
    Lifestyle, Portrait, Landscape, Editorial, Still Life.

  • CLIENTS:
    - Brands (fashion, lifestyle, portrait, product, etc..)
    - Musicians (album art, press kit, social, etc)
    - Individuals (Private Sessions, families, couples/friends).

  • CLIENTELE:
    American Eagle, CK, Interscope, Sony, Universal Music Group, Gap, Vogue, Playboy (partial list)

  • PRIMARY THEMES:
    Nature, women, coming of age, adventure, play, human spirit, emotions, industrial, freedom, eternal youth, death, sex, mental health, serenity, escapism, crime, shadow side, higher self, dichotomies and juxtapositions.

  • STYLE:
    Raw, cinematic, arty, ethereal, female-gaze, downtown, old-growth, sexy, humor, playful, psychedelic, eternal, lo-fi, surrealism, conceptual, daring, internet, provocative, warm, nostalgia, flash, ambient, frenetic.

  • INSPIRATIONS:
    The Foucault Pendulum, the Necker Cube, panopticons, childhood hero’s (mom, dad, grandma. Sister, neighbor), popular niche and underground culture, films (horror, psychological drama, foreign erotic thrillers, cult classic, raunchy comedies).

  • RATES
    Reasonable. Client and project specific based on involvement and usage.


CONTACT Me

Do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in working together!

StudioDonovan@gmail.com



I encourage you to bookmark the page, look through the site, sign up for the newsletter, and follow socials to see more.

Thanks for visiting!
- MD

JOIN THE OTHERS

My clients are all over the place: Women’s fashion magazines, men’s magazines, international indie magazines, luxury brands, small spunky brands, brands you’ll find at your local mall, major music labels, indie musicians, and others. I’ve worked with celebrities as well as simple individuals and families.

I specialize in emotions, telling surreal stories. and showing people at their best.

SHOP

FIND AND BUY THE RIGHT VIBES FOR YOUR HOME OR FOR GOING OUT.

WALL Prints

BOOKS & ZINES

Wearables

Photo ARCHIVES

The work has changed over the years. I’ve changed. Culture has changed. The people in the images and I have changed - but we shared a time and a place and these are part of our larger culture. Some of the things I’ve shot in the past are dated, while other things I shot are beginning to trend now.

I’ve always tried to do my own thing, stay in my own lane, and create my own work whilst still touching base with pop culture.

Below are snapshots in to the zeitgeist of each year, interpreted by me. I hope you enjoy.

<2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 v1 • 2022 v2

HUNGER MAGAZINE:

“Anarchist glamour: the photography of Michael Donovan

Geeks, freaks and subversive portraiture.

Photographer Michael Donovan takes conventional notions of beauty and sex and adds layers of subversion, threat and juxtaposition. Viewed collectively, his works describe a disorientating, anarchistic world populated by geeks and freaks who are alternately totally aware and then entirely oblivious to his camera. Water, or at least its potential, is an enduring presence throughout.”

ÉDITIONS du LIC:

“Operating in the contentious boundary between fashion and art photography

Donovan’s work often challenges the notion of images à la sauvette. The photographer deliberately imposes his aesthetic intention on reality whilst drawing inspiration from writers as diverse as Ram Dass, Timothy Leary, Osho and Charles Manson; influences much in evidence in the more psychedelic work within the book. Drawing on his graphic design background, Donovan harnesses the potential of graphic manipulation in his portrayal of the human condition; images often heavily edited using techniques both cutting edge and arcane, from experimental montage to graffiti and assemblage. 

Combining the beautiful with the bizarre, the controlled with the chaotic, Donovan’s photography attempts to destabilize the highly polished images expected of today’s consumer culture through the use of the psychedelic, androgyny, comedy, eroticism, surrealism, fantasy, Pop Art, cinema, fetishism and historical nuance.”