Michael McCarthy

Michael McCarthy is an American plastic artist and photographer who lives and works in Paris.

Holding a degree in History and Photography from the Tyler School of Art (PA, USA) in 1993, Michael McCarthy began his career of photography teacher and artist in Pennsylvania (USA).

He travels and lives in Italy for 4 years (Florence, Cortona, Rome) and then for 2 years in Greece. He has numerous shows in the USA and in Europe. He finally moves to France where he has been teaching and living since 2009.

Familiar with the most advanced photography techniques, his taste and his experimental curiosity lead him to an exploration of all photographic processes discovered since the origins of photography in the 19th century (photograms, Pinhole cameras, the Van Dyke process etc).

In 1997, he works for the University of Collegeville (PA, USA) and develops an ambitious program on alternative photography.
This exploration of early processes provides him with numerous plastics means and it is not a goal in itself: he uses all these techniques in order to create a singular universe. He uses the tools of a painter, the brush and pigments, and re-works relentlessly his negatives and/or his prints with the help of chemical processes, cutting, folding, and shredding.