The picture is of a woman screaming. It’s a picture that draws concern when you only glance. Reds and pinks begin to emerge – with distinct punctuation. You keep wondering what could cause someone to be that upset, to be that joyous. You forget she’s holding a guitar, you forget she has a microphone in front of her. The full picture is now visible.
Michael Sheehan is one of those guys who’s been through it all, seen it everywhere at least once. That includes photographing Brittany Howard of The Alabama Shakes and a lot more. It's what he has done, that's what he brings to his photography. There are photographers who get it, but they never understand the emotion. Maybe it’s because he learned the science of the laboratory later, after he realized he had a knack for finding the emotion first. Look hard enough, and you’ll see more than the light, more than the center.
Knowing a photographer’s background doesn’t especially guide your understanding of the photo. Michael Sheehan worked for twenty-five years “from dishwasher to owner,” but that’s just trivia. It’s what the photograph makes you feel that’s important. He knows it. “If the photographic art ceases to please, it is time to retire it from hanging on the wall,” he says.
But Sheehan has traveled a hard road, harder than many people who try to pass off their picture as anything more than a smartphone snapshot. He’s unique -- not in that he is a self-proclaimed Deadhead -- but what that fandom brought him: his partner for life Lisa, his work as a photography instructor (thanks to the dean also being a Grateful Dead fan), stellar pieces of art of Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia.
There’s Franz Lanting in his work, but there’s Alec Soth, too. At the point of his photograph of Bob Weir, he obviously had all of his skills coalescing into a visionary's eye.
When Jerry Garcia lived, photographers didn’t have iPhones, not everyone could afford analog, fewer fancied themselves self-taught photographers. Now everyone does. Leave it to the professionals. Sheehan worked on his craft. He went from a job at Custom Photo Art, where he gained the experience with film, real film, no Instagram filters or Photoshop techniques. Put it in a darkroom and print “from all transparencies, onto a multitude of different, expensive archival papers.” You don’t see it done like that anymore.
Look for advice, and it’s Sheehan you should ask first. You can’t get close enough. “The closer one is,” says Sheehan, “the more detail emerges.” Just like real estate, t’s about location.
For the details to emerge when staring down Michael Sheehan’s art, the best place to be is to see it is in person. More details will come through than just Brittany screaming.
Michael Sheehan’s work will be on display for a solo exhibit entitled The Music’s Eye at Birmingham’s Gallery Vox beginning with the opening reception on Thursday, September 17 from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm. For more from Michael Sheehan, visit his work on his website, Further Images.
