Darin Mickey

In 2014, New York–based photographer Darin Mickey (born 1974) began documenting a handful of record shops in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania--independently run stores that opened primarily in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, many of which are now on their last legs, or have recently been shuttered. These stores are the alphabetized havens for the musical successes of a few and the forgotten failures of many. Shot from the perspective of a middle-aged man restlessly clinging to his youth and the hope of finding that elusive artifact to make anxiety subside and keep the reaper at bay, Death Takes a Holiday shows us a community of beautiful recluses brought together by obsession, compulsion and a pure, undying love of music.

In 2001, Darin Mickey, a photographer, musician and teacher at the International Center of Photography and Cooper Union in New York, began to document his father's life at work and at home. Stuff I Gotta Remember Not to Forget is a portrait of Ken Mickey, who sells storage space in converted caves and abandoned mines throughout Kansas. We follow Darin following his father as he makes cold calls, watches television, attends meetings at the Masonic Termple, drives through underground tunnels and drinks his scotch on the rocks. Mickey's pictures deftly capture the emotions that an adult experiences around his parents; there is an unfamiliarity with the familiar, and the vying feelings of attraction and rejection of where one comes from. The title of this volume--taken from a Ziggy comic bulletin board--implies both the ambivalence and urgency of what family means once one leaves the fold. As much a memoir of Mickey's family life as a portrait of a salesman, Stuff I Gotta Remember Not to Forget is a document of the suburban Midwest, in turns honest, ridiculous and tender.