{"title":"Diana Michener","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiana Michener’s work invites readers into a richly textured exploration of the human form and psyche, blending vivid imagery with poetic sensitivity. Her titles, such as \u003cem\u003eBones\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eTwenty Eight Figure Studies\u003c\/em\u003e, reflect a deep engagement with the nuances of physical and emotional presence, appealing to those interested in the intersections of art and introspection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRooted in the \u003cstrong\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/strong\u003e sphere, Michener’s writing resonates with a contemplative spirit, unfolding layers of feeling and perception through both lyrical prose and experimental structures. Her books offer a compelling journey for readers drawn to evocative, thought-provoking literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"diana-michener-bones-by-diana-michener-9783969990124","title":"Diana Michener: Bones","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Diana Michener, bones are treasures, and this book is her preservation of them through photography in a way that honours their value as vessels of lives past. Inspired by nineteenth-century photography, along with Paul Strand and Irving Penn, Michener chose the appropriately delicate and precious medium of platinum prints, which she crafted in her darkroom from analogue film shot on a Hasselblad 500 C camera.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBones\u003c\/i\u003e recreates both the look and spirit of these prints through offset printing on Phoenixmotion Xantur paper, with each image interspersed with glassine leaves to create the sense of an antique photographic album. Michener's subjects are both human and animal bones, photographed between 2018 and 2021 in collections including Luxembourg's Museum of Natural History, Strasbourg's Zoological Museum, and the Musée de Cambrai—often in restricted areas, thus revealing many bones not normally accessible to the public.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn her words: \"Bones bear witness to a life, and in and of themselves they show the magnificent structures of our forms. They are what is left.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBones are a physical trace of a soul.\u003c\/i\u003e - Diana Michener\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47430590791916,"sku":"9783969990124","price":185.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9783969990124.jpg?v=1774559017"},{"product_id":"diana-michener-trance-by-diana-michener-9783958297579","title":"Diana Michener: Trance","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor many years, Diana Michener desired to photograph the horizon, yet hesitated. How to capture this defining feature of the landscape that is strangely elusive, a line which marks where earth and sky only seem to meet?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThen, two years ago, Michener took up an 8 × 10 analogue camera and felt drawn to the landscape outside Walla Walla, Washington, where she spends her summers. So began her engagement with the horizon, which she followed throughout mostly desert and semi-arid environments in Big Bend National Park, Texas, the Golan Heights, Israel, the Bardenas Reales, Spain, and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMichener intuits the horizon in a trance-like state, grasping its many changing guises: as an elegant line drawn by the setting sun, dissolving into haze, all but obscured by majestic boulders, or merely implied in a close-up image of wave-like rock sediments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLandscape-horizon line-the moment sky meets land or water. Symbolically we stand confined or expanded by our relationship to this line.\u003c\/em\u003e - Diana Michener\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTrance\u003c\/em\u003e showcases Michener's pursuit and captures the profound nuances of the horizon, offering a compelling perspective on this enduring and elusive meeting of sky and earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47470423343340,"sku":"9783958297579","price":160.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/f3c2bd5594c7c4c45d2962abd4d148dc.jpg?v=1775695058"},{"product_id":"diana-michener-twenty-eight-figure-studies-by-diana-michener-9783869308968","title":"Diana Michener: Twenty Eight Figure Studies","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow to represent sex as a place of ecstasy rather than pornography? How to transcend the unavoidable physicality of the sexual act, sometimes tender, sometimes violent, to reach what Diana Michener calls \"the place of communion ... the unknown, the cosmic\"?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDiana Michener: Twenty Eight Figure Studies\u003c\/em\u003e explores these themes with a unique artistic approach. Michener initially considered depicting live models for this book but ultimately decided to photograph stills from pornographic films. She transforms the hyperreality of the sex industry, its tarnished coloured gloss, into something more ambiguous, timeless, and expressive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe figurative forms of sex are often (just) recognisable in Michener's black-and-white pictures: a kiss, breasts, entangled limbs; but just as often, they are not. Bodies are simplified and blurred, seeping into abstraction and darkness, hinting at yet never embracing explicitness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn images both graphic and impressionistic, Michener's self-declared goal steadfastly remains \"to transform into the visual what is emotional and mental.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596214845676,"sku":"9783869308968","price":60.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9783869308968-diana-michener-twenty-eight-figure-studies.jpg?v=1777918239"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/diana-michener.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}