Amazingly, my first project at Granta was the Sex issue. Given my own proclivity for the nuances of hedonistic and sexual exploration, partly through art, it was a perfect way to start. I love to interrogate through image - or pose questions through a subversion of said image - and we came up with a visual that caused quite a stir and went on to pick up a Design and Art Direction award.
Michael SaluI was keen to challenge this vernacular as the role of the photojournalist was changing, and images were becoming urgent and more succinctly linguistic. This is why I moved to publishing artists who were challenging the veracity of both the medium and the profession through their works.
Michael SaluI'm interested in a lot of the languages that drive our culture. I'm interested in user experience as language or how societal malaise takes root.
Michael SaluYou may change your profile picture to Trayvon Martin or Eric Garner, but you will never actually walk the streets the way they have, or systematically had your vertebrae stunted. So you will not walk that shrouded walk unless you're on the inside and you can occasionally nod at another on the inside and that acknowledgement can carry you for a while as it won't come from the outside.
Michael SaluThough I've spent years working with and creating images, I feel most comfortable expressing myself through writing.
Michael SaluI realize after spending so long working with images, semiotic deconstruction and redeployment becomes second nature. We all speak with images. I guess I look at everything sideways nowadays.
Michael SaluOne Negro meeting another at an all-white cocktail party cannot but wonder how the other got there. The question is: Is he for real? Or is he just kissing ass? Almost all Negroes, are almost always acting, but before a white audience - which is quite incapable of judging their performance.
Michael Salu