This month’s British Journal of Photography features Michael in its “Any Answers” series. The photo of Michael was taken by Michael Grieve (@grievefoto) who also conducted the questions.
Here’s an excerpt from the article which you can read here.
“Before REM, the band he fronted for more than three decades, there was photography.
Michael Stipe began photographing as a teenager, and never really stopped, even after REM achieved worldwide fame in the late 1980s. Two years ago he published Michael Stipe: Volume 1, presenting a small fraction of the huge collection of diaristic images he’s amassed.
Stipe recently followed up with a critically acclaimed second book, Our Interference Times: A Visual Record, published by Damiani. Below, he reflects on his past, present and future.”
“I recall being photographed when I was two years old, when I had scarlet fever. The photographer kept asking me to smile, but I was so hot with fever, and the sweater I was wearing was so uncomfortable. And I was really hallucinating wildly. His head kept getting bigger and smaller while I tried to feebly smile.”