Michael Joseph (1941-) - Through the Wire, Vietnam 1964
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Michael Joseph's Through the Wire, Vietnam 1964 is a 1964 C‑Print, a limited edition 1/20 C-type print signed by the artist, measuring 30 cm by 40 cm and in extremely fine condition, sold direct from the artist.
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Description from the seller
Through the Wire — Vietnam, 1964
Michael Joseph (b. 1941)
Black & white photographic print
Original photograph: South Vietnam, 1964
Signed and dated by Michael Joseph
Limited Edition: 1/20
The final image in this selection from Michael Joseph’s extraordinary 1964 Vietnam archive — and perhaps an unexpectedly perfect place for the story to pause.
A small monkey clings to the wire of an enclosure, apparently fascinated by the camera immediately in front of it. Its hand reaches through the mesh towards the lens while its face peers out from behind the geometric pattern of the wire.
After the preceding photographs, the encounter feels almost surreal.
Across this group of images, 23-year-old Michael Joseph takes us progressively deeper into South Vietnam in 1964. We travel with him inside military aircraft and helicopters, looking down through open doors at the country below. We encounter soldiers at extraordinarily close quarters, moments of waiting and first aid, civilians caught within the military world, and the devastating aftermath of conflict.
There is the woman immobilised inside an enormous plaster cast after being shot in the spine, whom Joseph remembered being told would remain encased in it for six months. There are bodies lying in the grass beside a helicopter. There are children gathering inquisitively around soldiers and military machinery. There is the smiling young woman amongst armed men whose face would subsequently appear in Michael's Vietnam coverage in the March 1965 issue of Town.
Elsewhere, the landscape itself bears witness: the shattered remains of an aircraft lie abandoned beneath the mountains, the words “Pacific Air Forces” still visible amongst its broken skin.
And then comes that remarkable colour portrait: a young soldier in a brilliant red beret staring straight into Joseph's lens while the blurred muzzle of his weapon appears to point directly back at the photographer. It raises perhaps the most compelling question running through the entire series: what does it take for a photographer to remain behind the camera when everything around him is telling his heart to beat faster?
Then, almost mischievously, comes the monkey.
Once again there is a camera — but this time it is the subject that appears fascinated by it. The animal reaches through the wire towards the strange machine being pointed in its direction, while Joseph photographs from the other side.
There is something wonderfully circular about it. Throughout these twelve photographs Joseph has been the observer: moving closer, looking through barriers, entering other people's worlds and recording what he found. Here, for a fleeting instant, it almost feels as though the observer has become the observed.
This is what makes the Vietnam archive so compelling. It is not simply a sequence of photographs of war. It moves between fear and curiosity, destruction and tenderness, soldiers and children, suffering and laughter, landscape and machinery — and occasionally the completely unexpected.
These photographs were made by a young photographer at the beginning of his career, long before Michael Joseph became known for his elaborate advertising images and meticulously constructed group photographs. Yet the instinct that would define his later work is already unmistakable: get close, watch people, notice the unexpected — and always keep the camera ready.
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 twenty.
Twelve photographs. Twelve fragments of South Vietnam in 1964. And, to close the sequence, one final encounter through the wire — between photographer, camera and an irresistibly curious monkey.
#MichaelJoseph #Vietnam1964 #VietnamPhotography #VietnamArchive #ThePhotographersEye #DocumentaryPhotography #Photojournalism #WarPhotography #HumanityInWar #MonkeyPhotography #1960sPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #LimitedEditionPhotography #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 TranslateThrough the Wire — Vietnam, 1964
Michael Joseph (b. 1941)
Black & white photographic print
Original photograph: South Vietnam, 1964
Signed and dated by Michael Joseph
Limited Edition: 1/20
The final image in this selection from Michael Joseph’s extraordinary 1964 Vietnam archive — and perhaps an unexpectedly perfect place for the story to pause.
A small monkey clings to the wire of an enclosure, apparently fascinated by the camera immediately in front of it. Its hand reaches through the mesh towards the lens while its face peers out from behind the geometric pattern of the wire.
After the preceding photographs, the encounter feels almost surreal.
Across this group of images, 23-year-old Michael Joseph takes us progressively deeper into South Vietnam in 1964. We travel with him inside military aircraft and helicopters, looking down through open doors at the country below. We encounter soldiers at extraordinarily close quarters, moments of waiting and first aid, civilians caught within the military world, and the devastating aftermath of conflict.
There is the woman immobilised inside an enormous plaster cast after being shot in the spine, whom Joseph remembered being told would remain encased in it for six months. There are bodies lying in the grass beside a helicopter. There are children gathering inquisitively around soldiers and military machinery. There is the smiling young woman amongst armed men whose face would subsequently appear in Michael's Vietnam coverage in the March 1965 issue of Town.
Elsewhere, the landscape itself bears witness: the shattered remains of an aircraft lie abandoned beneath the mountains, the words “Pacific Air Forces” still visible amongst its broken skin.
And then comes that remarkable colour portrait: a young soldier in a brilliant red beret staring straight into Joseph's lens while the blurred muzzle of his weapon appears to point directly back at the photographer. It raises perhaps the most compelling question running through the entire series: what does it take for a photographer to remain behind the camera when everything around him is telling his heart to beat faster?
Then, almost mischievously, comes the monkey.
Once again there is a camera — but this time it is the subject that appears fascinated by it. The animal reaches through the wire towards the strange machine being pointed in its direction, while Joseph photographs from the other side.
There is something wonderfully circular about it. Throughout these twelve photographs Joseph has been the observer: moving closer, looking through barriers, entering other people's worlds and recording what he found. Here, for a fleeting instant, it almost feels as though the observer has become the observed.
This is what makes the Vietnam archive so compelling. It is not simply a sequence of photographs of war. It moves between fear and curiosity, destruction and tenderness, soldiers and children, suffering and laughter, landscape and machinery — and occasionally the completely unexpected.
These photographs were made by a young photographer at the beginning of his career, long before Michael Joseph became known for his elaborate advertising images and meticulously constructed group photographs. Yet the instinct that would define his later work is already unmistakable: get close, watch people, notice the unexpected — and always keep the camera ready.
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 twenty.
Twelve photographs. Twelve fragments of South Vietnam in 1964. And, to close the sequence, one final encounter through the wire — between photographer, camera and an irresistibly curious monkey.
#MichaelJoseph #Vietnam1964 #VietnamPhotography #VietnamArchive #ThePhotographersEye #DocumentaryPhotography #Photojournalism #WarPhotography #HumanityInWar #MonkeyPhotography #1960sPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #LimitedEditionPhotography #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
Through the Wire, 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
