Michael Joseph (1941-) - Hands on Heads, Vietnam 1964
03
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Current bid
€ 95
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Selected by Kai Brückner
Over 35 years' experience; former gallery owner and Museum Folkwang curator.
Estimate € 850 - € 1,050
 | €95 | |
|---|---|---|
| €85 | |
 | €73 | |
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Michael Joseph's C-Print limited edition photograph Hands on Heads, Vietnam 1964, dated 1964 and signed by the artist, 30 cm high by 40 cm wide, in extremely fine condition, sold direct from the artist as a hand-signed, numbered 1/20 edition.
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Description from the seller
Hands on Heads — Vietnam, 1964
Michael Joseph (b. 1941)
Black & white photographic print
Original photograph: South Vietnam, October 1964
Signed and dated by Michael Joseph
Limited Edition: 1/20
A tense and extraordinarily layered photograph from Michael Joseph’s Vietnam archive, taken in South Vietnam in October 1964, when the photographer was just 23 years old.
Inside a fortified compound surrounded by sandbags, a group of men stand facing away from the camera, hands raised or clasped behind their heads, apparently being searched or detained by armed soldiers. Several are stripped to the waist and dressed only in shorts, while military personnel move amongst them.
And then, in the foreground, Joseph catches something completely different.
An American serviceman, his name patch reading “ORADE”, stands with his hands pressed firmly over his ears and an almost incongruously relaxed expression on his face. Whatever prompted the gesture — engine noise, gunfire, an explosion or simply some deafening activity nearby — is outside the frame. Joseph gives us no answer.
That ambiguity makes the photograph particularly compelling.
The eye moves constantly through the scene: from the man covering his ears to the helmeted soldier immediately behind him; from the detainees to the sandbag defences, thatched buildings and armed figures beyond. There is an extraordinary amount happening within a single frame, yet Joseph has caught it with the instinctive composition that would later characterise his professional work.
Photographed in 1964, before the major escalation of US ground combat involvement the following year, the image belongs to an early and historically significant period of the Vietnam War. The exact circumstances of the detention, and the identities or affiliations of the men with their hands raised, have not been established from the surviving archive, so they are deliberately not identified beyond what the photograph itself reveals.
This contemporary black & white photographic print has been personally signed and inscribed “Vietnam 1964” by Michael Joseph and will additionally be numbered 1/20, making it the first print in an official limited edition of only twenty.
It is an image full of unanswered questions — detention, weapons, vulnerability and, at its centre, one strangely human gesture: a man simply putting his hands over his ears.
#MichaelJoseph #Vietnam1964 #VietnamPhotography #VietnamWar #WarPhotography #DocumentaryPhotography #MilitaryPhotography #Photojournalism #1960sPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #LimitedEditionPhotography #HistoricalPhotography #ConflictPhotography #PhotographicArchive #CollectiblePhotography
Seller's Story
My father, Michael Joseph, was a London-based advertising photographer, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, and best known for his photographs for the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet gatefold.
My continuing mission is to share what we affectionately call “the other photographs”: the lesser-known treasures from his extraordinary archive — original darkroom prints, test prints, alternative frames from major shoots, his celebrated group compositions, and more intimate, personal images.
For this special Solo Seller Auction, I am particularly excited to include a selection from Michael’s 1964 Vietnam archive — photographs that have never previously been seen or offered for sale. These remarkable images reveal a very different side of his work, made when he was just 23 years old.
Alongside Michael’s authentic vintage darkroom prints, I am also presenting a new generation of works: striking prints on aluminium and my own handmade cyanotypes, created from his original negatives and transparencies in the Dordogne sunshine. Some are made on vintage photographic paper retrieved from Michael’s own working library, bringing the archive quite literally into a new generation.
Together, the collection brings photographic history and contemporary experimentation side by side — from unique vintage prints made by Michael himself to bold new interpretations of his remarkable archive.
I hope you enjoy discovering these photographs as much as I enjoy bringing them to light — sometimes preserved exactly as Michael made them, sometimes given an entirely new life.
All works are carefully protected and packed with the attention appropriate to collectible photographic artworks.
For US buyers: customs duties and applicable import charges are paid at source and included in the shipping cost. No additional charges should normally be payable on delivery, subject to any change in regulations.
Translated by Google TranslateHands on Heads — Vietnam, 1964
Michael Joseph (b. 1941)
Black & white photographic print
Original photograph: South Vietnam, October 1964
Signed and dated by Michael Joseph
Limited Edition: 1/20
A tense and extraordinarily layered photograph from Michael Joseph’s Vietnam archive, taken in South Vietnam in October 1964, when the photographer was just 23 years old.
Inside a fortified compound surrounded by sandbags, a group of men stand facing away from the camera, hands raised or clasped behind their heads, apparently being searched or detained by armed soldiers. Several are stripped to the waist and dressed only in shorts, while military personnel move amongst them.
And then, in the foreground, Joseph catches something completely different.
An American serviceman, his name patch reading “ORADE”, stands with his hands pressed firmly over his ears and an almost incongruously relaxed expression on his face. Whatever prompted the gesture — engine noise, gunfire, an explosion or simply some deafening activity nearby — is outside the frame. Joseph gives us no answer.
That ambiguity makes the photograph particularly compelling.
The eye moves constantly through the scene: from the man covering his ears to the helmeted soldier immediately behind him; from the detainees to the sandbag defences, thatched buildings and armed figures beyond. There is an extraordinary amount happening within a single frame, yet Joseph has caught it with the instinctive composition that would later characterise his professional work.
Photographed in 1964, before the major escalation of US ground combat involvement the following year, the image belongs to an early and historically significant period of the Vietnam War. The exact circumstances of the detention, and the identities or affiliations of the men with their hands raised, have not been established from the surviving archive, so they are deliberately not identified beyond what the photograph itself reveals.
This contemporary black & white photographic print has been personally signed and inscribed “Vietnam 1964” by Michael Joseph and will additionally be numbered 1/20, making it the first print in an official limited edition of only twenty.
It is an image full of unanswered questions — detention, weapons, vulnerability and, at its centre, one strangely human gesture: a man simply putting his hands over his ears.
#MichaelJoseph #Vietnam1964 #VietnamPhotography #VietnamWar #WarPhotography #DocumentaryPhotography #MilitaryPhotography #Photojournalism #1960sPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #LimitedEditionPhotography #HistoricalPhotography #ConflictPhotography #PhotographicArchive #CollectiblePhotography
Seller's Story
My father, Michael Joseph, was a London-based advertising photographer, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, and best known for his photographs for the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet gatefold.
My continuing mission is to share what we affectionately call “the other photographs”: the lesser-known treasures from his extraordinary archive — original darkroom prints, test prints, alternative frames from major shoots, his celebrated group compositions, and more intimate, personal images.
For this special Solo Seller Auction, I am particularly excited to include a selection from Michael’s 1964 Vietnam archive — photographs that have never previously been seen or offered for sale. These remarkable images reveal a very different side of his work, made when he was just 23 years old.
Alongside Michael’s authentic vintage darkroom prints, I am also presenting a new generation of works: striking prints on aluminium and my own handmade cyanotypes, created from his original negatives and transparencies in the Dordogne sunshine. Some are made on vintage photographic paper retrieved from Michael’s own working library, bringing the archive quite literally into a new generation.
Together, the collection brings photographic history and contemporary experimentation side by side — from unique vintage prints made by Michael himself to bold new interpretations of his remarkable archive.
I hope you enjoy discovering these photographs as much as I enjoy bringing them to light — sometimes preserved exactly as Michael made them, sometimes given an entirely new life.
All works are carefully protected and packed with the attention appropriate to collectible photographic artworks.
For US buyers: customs duties and applicable import charges are paid at source and included in the shipping cost. No additional charges should normally be payable on delivery, subject to any change in regulations.
Translated by Google TranslateDetails
Date of print
1964
Artist
Michael Joseph (1941-)
Sold by
Direct from the artist
Title of artwork
Hands on Heads, Vietnam 1964
Condition
Extremely fine
Technique
C-Print
Height
30 cm
Edition
Limited Edition C-type print, signed by the artist
Width
40 cm
Signature
Hand signed
Genre
Military and war
Sold by
