1990sFoundations
Study in photography and visual arts. Groundwork for a lifetime of looking.
About the artist
Michael Martin
“Every frame is a question.” Michael Martin’s work turns the streets into stories, asking us to see truth where others pass by.
Michael Martin is a photographer whose lens moves between the intimate and the political. From the Umbrella Protests in Hong Kong to everyday markets in Singapore and Manila, his work captures ordinary lives caught in extraordinary times. Each image becomes both memory and witness, revealing humanness where technology, society, and conflict threaten to erase it.
StreetPortraitInterpretive
Portrait
Timeline
Key turns that shaped the work
- Atlanta experiments
Gallery in Atlanta. Abstracts, early research, learning by doing.
- Into the streets
Move to Singapore. From abstraction to the intimacy of street work.
- Teach and learn
Adjunct at LaSalle College of the Arts. Street portraiture across Asia.
- Protest on the lens
Umbrella Protests, Hong Kong. Art, politics, courage in one frame.
- Across Asia
Based in Hong Kong. Cities as studio, people as subject and teacher.
- Interpretive shift
Return home. Layered work holding culture, memory, and myth.
- NowSynthesis
Street meets interpretation. Not only to portray, but to evoke.
Stories etched in light
From abstract gestures to raw human encounters. Little India at dusk. Mong Kok after midnight. Places where recyclers, vendors, and children carry the day forward.
The interpretive work admits every frame is a choice. A way to remember together and see what we miss when life moves fast.
The photograph is less proof than promise.
Practice and approach
Work sits between intimate and political. Portraits without pose. Streets without spectacle. Patience over perfection.