Mike Mandel: Myself

The revised edition of Mandel's first-ever photobook, comprising "self-portraits" he made by inserting himself into social situations with strangers unfolding in public space

In 1971, inspired by Lee Friedlander's self-portraits, the humorous and innocent pictures made by Jacques Henri Lartigue and the dynamics of chance in the act of creation as embodied in the work of Marcel Duchamp, American conceptual photographer Mike Mandel (born 1950) set out to make Myself: Timed Exposures. He attached his 35mm camera to a tripod and walked out into public space, looking for social situations to insert himself into and create a picture. Once he found a likely opportunity, he would set up the camera, release the self-timer and enter the frame. People, strangers to Mandel, would be jarred for a moment from their routine and their perceived public isolation. Suddenly, "click," the machine made its own "decisive moment." Mandel was busy being the subject and would have to wait for the darkroom to find out if he had made any pictures that day.
This is a revised edition of Mandel's photobook, originally self-published in 1972. It features a gatefold, sewn sections, an open spine book block and a Swiss-bound cover.