Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Michael Ormerod
African American Man on Street, 1989 - Black and White Photographic Print

c. 1989

About the Item

African American Man on Street is a dramatic Black & White photographic print on Hahnemuhle Paper available in this size in an Edition of 10. States of America is the photographic legacy of one of the UK’s leading photographic talents whose untimely death in 1991 ended prematurely the highly promising career of a distinctive and powerful photographic voice. Michael Ormerod was born in Cheshire in 1947. He lived in Newcastle, but spent many years travelling America. Fascinated by the American image, and following in the footsteps of Robert Frank, Ormerod took to the American West to find a washed out dream of capitalism. His images capture a strange juxtaposition of an American beauty tainted by a hidden sense of menace and corruption. The photographs are understated, but show an unseen America, where the industrial heartland is decaying, highways stand empty and towns are deserted. The subjects of Ormerod’s work are the disenfranchised. A teenager cycles through her neighbourhood wearing a Halloween-style hockey mask, a Native American man stands in a graveyard, their expressions are unreadable. The work subverts traditional American icons. A white picket fence is staved in, a huge billboard for Miss Teen Dakota USA stands next to an empty highway. Inverting the famous Hollywood sign, Ormerod photographs a Texaco sign from the back, dominating the empty, Western landscape. The works also show humour – a giant fake dinosaur looms in the distance of a desert landscape, a stuffed moose head is displayed in the window of a diner. The subjects of the work are unconventional, surreal and sometimes mundane, but create an atmosphere of an eerie backwater America. His photographs are those of the outsider, constantly travelling through a no-man’s-land. A sense of pessimism pervades, showing how the commercial boom of the 1950s has collapsed, leaving deserted streets, rubbish dumps and alienation. It is a land where the American Dream has turned sour. Ormerod’s book, States of America, was published shortly after he died to mark an exhibition held at the Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London. Since then, two exhibitions of his work have been held, the most recent entitled 'Michael Ormerod: Vanishing Point', by Crane Kalman Brighton gallery in 2024. All prints are produced to order, lead times are expected between 5-10 days.
  • Creator:
    Michael Ormerod (1947 - 1991, British)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1989
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 34 in (86.36 cm)Depth: 0.1 in (2.54 mm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Brighton, GB
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU72233237333

More From This Seller

View All
Boy and Men on Horses - Black and White Photographic Print on Hahnemuhle Paper
By Michael Ormerod
Located in Brighton, GB
Boy and Men on Horses is a stunning Black and White photographic print on Hahnemuhle Paper, in this size of 24” x 34” in an edition of 10. States of America is the photographic lega...
Category

1980s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Black and White

Sandwich board in Street - Black and White Photographic Print
By Michael Ormerod
Located in Brighton, GB
Sandwich Board in Street is a Black & White print on Hahnemuehle Paper available In this size of 24” x 34” in an edition of 10. Michael Ormerod was a British photographer with a dis...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Black and White

Man Walking in Front of Building, Houston - Black and White Photographic Print
By Michael Ormerod
Located in Brighton, GB
Man Walking in Front of Building, Houston is a stunning Black & White print on Hahnemuehle Paper available In this size of 24” x 34” in an edition of 10. Michael Ormerod was a Briti...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Black and White, Photographic Paper

Man with Newspaper, 1989 - Black and White Photographic Print on Hahnemuhle
By Michael Ormerod
Located in Brighton, GB
Man with Newspaper is a Black & White print on Hahnemuehle Paper in this size of 24” x 34” in an edition of 10. Michael Ormerod was a British photographer with a distinct and powerf...
Category

1980s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Black and White

Cheetah Who Shops from the Getty Archive
Located in Brighton, GB
Please bear in mind that all prints are produced to order. Lead times are expected between 15-20 days. "Cheetah Who Shops" is a stylish black-and-wh...
Category

20th Century Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Black and White

Marilyn Monroe, 1954 - Black and White Print from Getty Images Archive
Located in Brighton, GB
Please bear in mind that all prints are produced to order. Lead times are expected between 15-20 days. Taken from the world’s largest photographic archive, (Hulton Archive and Getty...
Category

20th Century Modern Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Black and White

You May Also Like

Elaine Irwin Mellencamp, Unique with Gold Paint, For Pirelli 1998, Custom framed
By Bruce Weber
Located in London, GB
The Pirelli Calendar, known and trade-marked as "The Cal", is an annual trade calendar which has been published by the UK subsidiary of the Italian tyre manufacturing company Pirelli...
Category

1990s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Gold

14 juillet 1936 Paris Willy Ronis Humanist black and white photography
By Willy Ronis
Located in Paris, FR
Willy Ronis is one of the most famous members of the French Humanist photography. Silver print on photographic paper Hand-signed by the artist lower right Stamp of the artist's stud...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Ravaged Isabelle Floch Contemporary portrait photography black and white woman
Located in Paris, FR
Pigment ink on Fine Art Hahnemühle paper Edition 1/5 Hand-signed on the back by the artist “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” Th...
Category

2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Pigment

Divination by Shadow
By Rachel Phillips
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Each Cabinet Card is unique, and the image above details the front and back of the card. A handmade display stand made by the artist is also available for $100 – please inquire if in...
Category

2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment, Photographic Paper

The Throw
By Anouk Krantz
Located in Bozeman, MT
The photographs are unframed. Born and raised in France, Anouk Masson Krantz moved to the United States in the late 1990's. Living in New York, she completed high school at the Lyc...
Category

2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

The Throw
Price Upon Request
Wrangler
By Anouk Krantz
Located in Bozeman, MT
The photographs are unframed. Born and raised in France, Anouk Masson Krantz moved to the United States in the late 1990's. Living in New York, she completed high school at the Lyc...
Category

2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Wrangler
Price Upon Request

Recently Viewed

View All