"For in utter darkness, it is impossible to know in what degree of safety we stand; we are ignorant of the objects that

surround us." Edmund Burke

Figure Studies is exactly that, studies in the human form. The practice of figure studies has a long history in the visual

arts, particularly drawing, but for Michener it is about blurred, close-up, black-and-white photos with a sensual,

dark, sometimes menacing edge. Intertwined human forms, body parts bordering on abstraction, and frozen movement

are the stuff of Michener's raw vision.

Born in Boston in 1940, Diana Michener holds a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College in New York and later studied

with Lisette Model at New York's New School. Michener has exhibited internationally, including a retrospective at

the Maison Européene de la Photographie in Paris in 2001. Her books with Steidl include the award-winning Dogs,

Fires, Me (2005), 3 Poems (2006) and Sweethearts (2010).