Michael Tighe is a celebrity photographer based in Los Angeles, who started shooting formal portraits during high school and working professionally at the age of 17. He notably studied with portrait photographers Philippe Halsman and Arnold Newman and published regularly his images in Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine where his career took off. Today, he is retiring, after nearly five decades of a rich career. He is selling very affordable prints of his photographs.
Come June I am leaving Los Angeles after 27 years here. Moving down to Baja, Mexico to begin a whole new chapter in my life. Have felt a pull to leave for a long time now. At the top of the list of the WHYs would be my spiritual life and the extraordinary journey I am on. An ongoing awakening, dare I say… towards itty bitty flirts with an enlightened state I’ve experienced in meditation and my other spiritual practices.
I never imagined I would become so deeply immersed and fully committed to this considering the character I’ve been most of my life. More than ever my body & spirit craving to be in nature… a peaceful unhurried environment. I found myself a beautiful little town, where half the roads aren’t even paved, just hard pressed sand… right on the beach with a flourishing artist’s community. It’s called “Todos Santos”. Google it. They have an official website. I’m hoping friends will want to come visit. It’s wonderful. Close to the southern tip of Baja where every day stepping outside my little “casita” on the beach and walking barefoot on sand & earth will be the norm.
Second from the top of the list of my WHYs is rebirthing the artist that I am and always have been, but let that get so tangled up and murky from forty years in the celebrity photographer business. Away from the intensely crowded and competitive “notice me” LA art scene, I look forward to reconnecting with what I once did so naturally as a child, simply making art because it was in me. Not caring if anyone likes it, how to sell it and all the other professional artist concerns that can suffocate creativity.
For the next two months before I leave, I am selling archival ink jet prints, signed & dated, of all my work, old & new, at the lowest prices they’ve ever sold. That I never would have considered selling for such low prices, but for moving to Mexico where the cost of living is a lot less pricey and my gringo dollar will go a long way. Many times, over the years, I got that familiar sigh from friends and strangers… “I wish I could afford your work” . . . now everyone can. And this may very well be the last time I make available any of my archival images from the “film era” page on my site. It’s beautiful work. I’ve loved sharing it with folks all these years. But I’m wanting to cut it all loose, this whole celebrity photographer part of my life. So, there you go: www.michaeltighe.website.
Michael Tighe
Print prices information:
- 20X24 inches: $200
- 16X20 inches: $150
- 11X14 inches: $75
To acquire a print from Michael Tighe, please contact him at: [email protected]
