My first encounter with Michael Lease, back in 2005, made a big mess of my thoughts on photography—and its long, winding cleanup has afforded me some beautiful artistic insights. It was the exhibition of You’re Invited, a collection of birthday photographs sent to him by the mothers of his friends. The subject of each image is someone blowing out birthday candles, and two stories—that of the subject and the counterpart story of the parent—were printed in a correlating book. Something about their being grouped together created such a sense of time passage, magic, sadness: all of those little people moving on into another year, for the time being shadowed by someone bigger (there’s often an older presence, even if it’s just an arm or a torso, pictured). How Michael could release control over his medium enough to show photos that he didn’t actually take inspired me to no end, especially since he still managed to lend a deeply compassionate and careful eye to the work.
 
That probing of the line between private and public is an ever-present influence on Michael’s projects. Sure, he’s shown in galleries in New York, Taiwan, what have you, but his favorite spots have been much more accessible places like the bombed-out Church of the Rapture, part of a location-specific collaboration called SiteProjects in DC. He wheat-pasted 155 of his images on an outer wall, flooding the brain with ideas from the inocuous—popcorn—to the spicy—post-coital idling. A show at American University’s Katzen Arts Center featured a few hung pieces like the bright but funereal “Kim + Crape” (and even the hanging pushes the envelope, each image being a collection of 11 x 17 prints pasted together without frame or glass to separate it from the viewer), but there was also work waiting quietly on a nearby laptop. Frostberg State University, where he taught for three years, saw a very personal project unfold—he chose a spot in the classroom and photographed each student in his class there at the end of the semester, made contact sheets, and gave them to the subjects. “I wanted to give back, and to have tangible proof of that relationship, of the art enmeshed in everyday life. I wanted the students to know that it was real life to me, not just a job. Teaching can be a powerful thing.”
 
Currently, the Anderson Gallery employs him as Gallery Associate; he’s working under former Visual Arts Center curator Ashley Kistler. You can check out what he’s working on (even participate in some of it, if you want) at his website, http://www.michaellease.com, and there’s a site—www.sametime715.com–dedicated solely to one of his recent projects. SAMETIME 7:15 developed into a 6-person collaboration in which each photographer shoots something at 7:15 every evening. All the work is posted contiguously, highlighting similarities and contrasts in color, space, the motion of the everyday. Want to meet Michael Lease? Take a walk with him on September 5 as he participates in InLight, 1708 Gallery’s Nuit Blanche-inspired 3-block celebration. He’ll be “illuminating” his tour groups as to what those blocks were like before art, before people, before civilization. “I don’t toil away in my little laboratory. I want my work to be social, I want to make something that people can engage in, with which they can engage me.”

WEB | http://www.michaellease.com

Michael,  I can’t wait to see some of your work in person.  So far I’ve only viewed bits and pieces on line.  Remarkable!  Joan

I enjoyed reading your article about Michael Lease.  I view
him a lovely human being who possesses a certainty of who he is
and how he can serve humanity. 
He serves first by being present in a conversation.  He
serves second through the humility he carries with him
each day. There is more to Michael Lease than I have
had the privilege to learn.  Glad for him to be free in his creativity.

We did see the show at the Katzen Art Center and it was a wonderful presentation, thougthfully laid out and beautifully displayed.  We look forward to more of this artist’s work.