About Mike Cullen

I’m a Brooklyn-based artist working with photography and image-based projects. My work often moves between observation and construction, with an interest in atmosphere, ambiguity, and the point where the familiar starts to turn strange. My work often moves between observation and construction, with an interest in atmosphere, ambiguity, and the point where the familiar starts to turn strange. Recent projects combine photography, collage, and intervention to create images that feel partly discovered and partly invented.

I’ve had a camera in my hands for most of my life. Early and lasting influences include Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Edward Weston, and the photographers of the Farm Security Administration—especially Walker Evans. I found a book of his in high school, and it altered the arc of my life for the better.

I studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and continued learning afterward through books, exhibitions, and practice. Sometimes the best teacher really is a library card.

I’ve lived in several places across New York State, and now live in Brooklyn with my wife and our cats.

I’m currently developing No Method of Reply, a new project built around fragmented images, fabric, sound, and spatial installation.

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Me with my camera on a street in Bensonhurst, and with my work at few openings at Soho Photo Gallery in New York City.