Duane Michals (b. 1932, McKeesport, PA) is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text. Continuing to push the boundaries of photography, Michals’s practice also includes film, painting, and sculpture. His work has been exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. Recent major retrospectives include Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2015); Duane Michals, Fundación Mapfre, Barcelona, Spain (2017); The Illusions of the Photographer: Duane Michals at the Morgan, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York (2019), among many others. Over forty monographs of his work have been published. Michals lives and works in New York City.

Christopher Alessandrini is a writer based in New York, where he currently works as managing editor of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's online magazine, Perspectives. His writing on art has appeared in The New York Review of Books, Frieze, The Brooklyn Rail, CURA., Interview, and elsewhere. His short story "Maverick Road" was published in Five Stories for Philip Guston (2024).