"Los Angeles born Mike Mandel produced some of the most irreverent and interesting photography and conceptual art of the 1970s. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Mandel had released two of his most significant works by the time he was 21 years old, influenced by greats such as Evans, Duchamp, and Friedlander as well as his LA contemporary Ed Ruscha."

For Myself: Timed Exposures (1971) Mandel attached his 35mm camera to a tripod and walked around in public spaces looking for situations to insert himself and create a picture. “Once I found a likely opportunity I would set up the camera, release the self-timer on the shutter, and walk into the frame. The mechanical timer would noisily unwind for ten full seconds, allowing the world to change its complexion in front of my static lens. People, strangers to me, would be jarred for a moment from their routine and their perceived public isolation. I was standing uncomfortably close next to them, an abandoned camera buzzing a few feet away. I might say something or nothing at all. And suddenly, ‘click’, the machine had made its own decisive moment and only the film would know what latent treasure it owned.”