2013 has been a very good year for photographer Michael Massaia. He had several solo exhibitions, had work in numerous group shows and was one of the 8 winners of the Hearst 8×10 Photography Biennial Prize. I can’t help but think that these accolades come from a commitment to craft, the kind of commitment that
“Seeing the black dog” is a saying truck drivers use to describe hallucinations that occur as a result of sleep deprivation during cross country runs. When they see the “black dogs” scampering across the highway they know to pull over and get some sleep. The moment they make that decision is when I sneak up to their trucks while they’re in the cabs sleeping and capture the moment the dogs melt away. All of the images were taken between the hours of 2am and 6am along the New Jersey Turnpike.
Michael Massaia’s photographs are imbued with a sense of beauty and mystery, as if images conjured from a dream. In Afterlife New Jersey shore boardwalks are deserted and appear illuminated by an internal glow. Conversely, the figures in Sheep Meadow fl
Michael Massaia’s photographs are imbued with a sense of beauty and mystery, as if images conjured from a dream. In Afterlife New Jersey shore boardwalks are deserted and appear illuminated by an internal glow. Conversely, the figures in Sheep Meadow float in a lush black void stripped of their context by Massaia’s expert printing techniques.
When the truck engine fell silent and the trucker climbed into the cab to slumber, photographer Michael Massaia would haul his 60lb large format camera from the bushes and close in.
“When truckers see black dogs scampering across the highway they know to pull over and get some sleep,” says photographer Michael Massaia, who made the hunt for the black dog a personal photographic project, spending many a night at New Jersey Turnpike truck stops.
Born in New Jersey in 1978, Michael Massaia Is a fine art photographer and printmaker whose work focuses on New York City, and New Jersey life and landscape. Massaia specializes in large format black & white photography and large format Platinum/Palladium printing.
