Michael Bailey-Gates

Photographer Michael Bailey-Gates graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2015, the same year they won the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Award, launching them into the professional art world. The work Bailey-Gates is focused on most is portraiture, influenced by classical studio photography. Working with a close circle of collaborators and subjects, there is often a subversive edge to their photography. Gender roles are interrogated and norms transgressed, and the result is a body of work that is transformative, emotional and focused keenly on the self.

Bailey-Gates has collaborated with commercial fashion brands such as Valentino, Armani and Ami. They also contribute to publications including Vogue US, the New York Times and Rolling Stone. Their monograph titled A Glint in the Kindling was published in 2021.