Michel Comte

“It was the age of innocence as they called it, and the roads never ended,” says Swiss photographer and artist Michel Comte (born 1954) of American Road Stories, his vision of how America once was. The book combines found erotic images from the 1970s and ’80s with his photographs taken from a car speeding along a desert highway, as the horizon, both physical and metaphorical, stretches infinitely into the distance.

Comte conjures up a simpler moment in America’s history, a golden time when getting in touch with a friend or lover meant not reaching for an iPhone but dropping a quarter into a payphone. For Comte this is a slice of history where the classic American road trip and sexual freedom go hand in hand; whether nostalgic or voyeuristic, he leaves for the viewer to decide.

This book is Michel Comte’s (born 1954) portrait of the glamour and grit of Gery Keszler’s annual Life Ball, held as a reminder that AIDS is still present. From Bill Clinton to Whoopi Goldberg, Naomi Campbell to Elton John, the worlds of politics and fashion unite at amfAR’s (the American Foundation for AIDS Research) gala in Vienna, designed each year by a different artist.

Through photos, reproductions of neoclassical treasures and reworked images of masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s Pietà, Michel Comte (born 1954) traces the classical aesthetic and its rebirth as neoclassicism throughout the ages. In Comte’s words, the neoclassic demonstrates a “dream of perfection,” one we are seduced by even as we know its danger.

This publication documents a cosmological land art installation by Swiss photographer Michel Comte (born 1954) on the site of the ancient Turkish city of Harran. A major urban site in ancient Upper Mesopotamia, the area was home to Sabians, a community of star worshippers.

This collaboration between Swiss artist Michel Comte (born 1954) and the NCCR MSE explores the thin line between contemporary art and molecular research. EL & Us—engineering life and us—is Comte’s proactive contribution, directly addressing the issue: can engineering life lead to a better future?

Published with Milk.

For more than 35 years, photographer Michel Comte (born 1954) has been one of the most in-demand editorial and fashion photographers in the world. Since 2006, he has worked almost exclusively with Milk Studios on photography and film projects. With the advantage of a base of operations at the Milk Studios in New York City and Los Angeles, Comte has found the freedom to work outside of and transcend the limitations of the traditional "fashion photographer" role, working in fashion, portraiture, reportage and now motion pictures. "Whether Michel has a Hollywood celebrity or an orphan from the Third World in front of his lens," said Tina Brown, former editor-in-chief of the New Yorker, "he takes both their pictures with the same sincerity and devotion." Published on the occasion of the 20-year anniversary of Milk Studios, this deluxe clothbound volume was designed by creative director Mike Meiré, whose own 25-year career working at the nexus of culture and design is the stuff of legend. Featuring images from Comte’s legendary archive, including previously unpublished behind-the-scenes imagery and film stills, Michel Comte and Milk: A Collaboration 1996–2016 is a celebration of passion, storytelling and the creative process.