Born
in North Carolina, Michael Childers attended UCLA Film School where he directed
student films and began his photography career studying with Robert Heineken
and Edmund Teske. Michael created the mixed media work for the record-breaking
run of the off-Broadway musical Oh!
Calcutta! for Kenneth Tynan, leading to an invitation for photographic work
at Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theater in London. He remains the only American photographer
invited to do so. He was a founding photographer for Andy Warhol’s Interview and After Dark magazines; and produced Dance magazine covers featuring the Joffrey Ballet, The Royal
Ballet, and Alvin Ailey Dance Company, and co-authored Bejart:The World of Dance.
From
his LA studios, Michael photographed 200+ magazine covers including GQ, New York, TV Guide, Esquire, Los
Angeles, Elle, Paris Match, Life, London Sunday Times Magazine, and English
and Italian Vogue. He created 150+
album covers and film posters for major studios and worked as a photographer on
many films, and won 2 Art Direction
Awards for the movie posters for Terminator and Siesta.
In
2003, the Palm Springs Desert Museum presented a forty-year retrospective of
Michael’s work, Icons and Legends. In
2006, La Dolce Vita: The Photography of
Michael Childers, was exhibited at the Los Angeles Film Festival; the Palm
Springs Art Museum presented Celebration
of Three Hollywood Photographers: George Hurrell, Sid Avery, in 2007, Rockin’ Hollywood at the Queen
Mary Gallery, Long Beach featured portraits of rock-and-roll icons and music
legends. Author Author, featuring Childers’ images of celebrated
authors, playwrights, poets and screenwriters, was exhibited in a dozen major
U.S. libraries, including the Beinecke Library Rare Book and Manuscript Library
at Yale University and the Monroe C. Gutman Library at Harvard University in
2019.
Michael has lectured in
both the USA and Europe about his late partner John Schlesinger’s classic Oscar
winning film: Midnight Cowboy.
Michael’s photos are in the
collections of the National Portrait Gallery; Victoria & Albert Museum, British
Film Institute Library in London, Palm Springs Art Museum, The University of
Texas at Austin - Harry Ransom Center, UC Riverside Photography Museum, Laguna
Art Museum, The Andy Warhol Museum; Pittsburgh, Marion Center for the
Photographic Arts; Santa Fe, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; Beverly
Hills, Lincoln Center Library for the
Performing Arts; San Luis Obispo, Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum, Scripps
College Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Marquette University Art Gallery;
Milwaukee; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Yale University Beinecke Library; Yale
Center of British Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Cal State Fullerton
Art Gallery, The Getty Museum; Los Angeles.
Having
a Ball,
a large retrospective of Childers’ works, opened at the Palm Springs Art Museum
on January 13th, 2018, and Starstruck, a retrospective
of his works on Hollywood films, opened January 31, 2018, at the Margaret
Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in Beverly
Hills.
Michael
won a Best Short Documentary Film Award in 2019 from the Hollywood Reel
Independent Film Festival for the film he produced called I Knew Andy
Warhol.
Michael
can be seen in the documentary, Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of
Midnight Cowboy on Netflix. He is seen in the award-winning documentary portraying
Oscar Wilde’s photographer in the independent film Oscar Wilde About America.
Michael is also in Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind. His publication entitled Divine Creatures, a drag Ball and white party photographic collection from the 1970’s and
2000’s proved equal success. In April of 2025 Michael spoke at the Academy of
Motion Pictures Art and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA. Michael was featured in a
video interview for the Yale Center for British Art, Artists in Conversation highlighting his work and encounters with many renowned British artists and
legends.
NAKED
YOGA, his next event will exhibit his collection of rare-toned, silver gelatin
stills at Stephen Baumbach Gallery in Palm Springs, CA, October 23, 24, 25. All
sales of the photos will fund Yoga Teacher Training. Produced and curated by
Stephanie Hartshorn Eley.
The
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum will host ‘STORIES FROM BEYOND THE LENS’, An Evening
with Photos of Michael Childers, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Reception
5-7:30pm. Free event.
His
exhibit KNOWN/UNKNOWN; A Collection of Michael Childers Photographs will be
held at the Orangerie Gallery; Palm Springs, CA, November 20, 20-26 -Jan 1,
2027.
.
Michael currently resides in Palm Springs, California and can be reached at michael@michaelchilders.com.
