Michael Flomen was born on 1952 and is a self-taught Canadian artist who primarily creates photograms, or cameraless photographs in collaboration with nature.
16 Facts About Michael Flomen
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From 1969 to 1971 Michael Flomen attended Darrow School located on the site of an historic Shaker village in the Taconic Mountains, west of the central Berkshires in New Lebanon, New York.
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In 1971 at the age of 19, Michael Flomen traveled to Europe and decided during his trip that he would pursue photography once he returned to Canada.
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Michael Flomen originally planned to study Marine Biology at the University of Miami, but he still retained an active interest in science and the natural world.
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In 1972, Michael Flomen was introduced to William Ewing, the owner-director of les Galeries photographiques du Centaur, in Montreal.
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At Centaur, Michael Flomen was exposed to books on the art of photography that inspired his passion.
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Michael Flomen wanted to be a part of the 20th century movement to elevate photography's status to that of a fine art.
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Michael Flomen's meeting with Ewing led to his first solo exhibition Shaker Light in 1972 at Centaur which featured his photographs he took of Shaker architecture at the site of the Mount Lebanon Shaker community.
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In 1985 Michael Flomen's work was included in a group exhibition Canadian Contemporary Photography, from the Collection of the National Film Board at the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario.
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In 1995, Michael Flomen exhibited the series Imminent Ground at Galerie Vox in Montreal.
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Michael Flomen was in Vermont at his cottage where he often stays, and at dusk he wanted to make photographs of the fireflies that came out, but without using a camera or flash.
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Michael Flomen collaborated with a firefly to create a photogram by exposing the 8 x 10 inch negative with the firefly's light.
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Michael Flomen took the negative and printed the first works in the series Higher Ground.
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In 2008, Michael Flomen's work was shown in the exhibition Fragile at Galerie Pangee in Montreal.
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Michael Flomen's activity produces remarkable documents of natural diversity, of collaboration with nature, something that gives them their unquestionable dynamism.
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In Michael Flomen's Pharmed series from the 2010s, Michael Flomen exposed original glass plate negatives in situ, directly from nature without using a camera, to use for printing his photographs.