R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe exposes his artistic process in a new photo book

Perhaps more widely known for his exceptional music career as the lead singer of the award-winning band R.E.M., Michael Stipe is also a successful photographer and visual artist. Before his musical success, Stipe was a visual arts student at the University of Georgia in Athens, and since 2018 he has been releasing publications of his works.

Even the Birds Gave Pause by Michael Stipe is a new book published by Damiani, in which Stipe explores further his first love of visual art. The book provides a diaristic insight into the lesser-seen part of the artist's life as he prepares for a solo exhibition in Milan titled I have lost and I have been lost but for now I’m flying high.

Stipe has previously published three photo books with Damiani which largely explore portraiture in some form, Volume 1 was published in 2018, Our Interference Times: A Visual Record was published in 2019, and Michael Stipe was published in 2021, all of which provided different insights into Stipe's practice, and all of which were extremely successful in doing so.

The latest release Even the Birds Gave Pause follows a similar formula, highlighting the importance of process in making art. The book provides a window into Stipe's artistic process through which we are invited to peek. The process of making and developing is the art in this instance, and in this book, prioritized over the finished product. This is evident in a series of photographs showing work-in-progress pieces, that have been captured through Stipe's lens.

The book articulates portraiture in various mediums, such as plaster, concrete, plastics, bookmaking, ceramics, video, and darkroom photographic printing, blending classic snapshots of celebrity friends with abstract sculpture pieces. Much like the famous Picasso and Giacometti photographs, the book's strength comes from looking at it as an entirety, as a peek behind the curtain into a contemporary artist's atelier. Stipe's process and documentation of the process 'become part of the whole'.

Michael Stipe's Even the Birds Gave Pause is published by Damiani and available now in the UK and Europe for £45 | €50, and will be released in the US on April 30 for $55. The publication was developed with a solo exhibition at the Ica Milano Foundation, on display until March 16.

A collectors edition of the book is available from Damiani and includes a copy of the brand new book Even the Birds Gave Pause and a limited edition (X/30) darkroom print on photographic Ilford Fiber Darkroom Paper and acrylic paint titled Self-portrait as Brancusi, in grieving 2023, available for €850.

If you are interested in photography books you may be interested in our guides to the best coffee table books, the best books on portrait photography, and the best street photography books.