“Michael Crouser can make you fall in love with photography again.”
—Monovisions Magazine
After setting up a darkroom in his parents’ basement, Michael began making photographs in earnest at the age of fourteen. He has exhibited his photographs nationally and internationally, and in January of 2012 Leica Gallery of New York exhibited “Michael Crouser: A Mid-Career Retrospective” which featured four distinct series from twenty-five years of his photography. He has taught at The International Center of Photography in New York, the Minneapolis Photo Center, and Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. Michael lives in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and son.
While working in commercial photography, Crouser began a personal project that would ultimately take fifteen years to complete and later become his first monograph. Los Toros (Twin Palms Publishers) is an exploration of bullfighting around the world. He was awarded first prize in the category of Fine Art Book at the 2008 International Photography Awards.
Crouser’s second book, Dog Run (Viking Studio), is a series on the intense play of dogs in urban dog parks and was listed as a Top Ten Photography Book of the Year by the International Photography Awards, PhotoDistrict News and Communication Arts.
In 2014 Michael was awarded the George Eastman/Power of the Image Award in Beijing, China, along with several other photographers. The award event also featured a large public space exhibition by the group at the famous Temple of Heaven.
On Chinese television with Lauren Greenfield and Roman Loranc in 2014.
Michael speaking at the George Eastman Museum in 2015.
Crouser’s third monograph, Mountain Ranch (University of Texas Press), was published in the summer of 2017, featuring 165 toned black and white images from the disappearing world of cattle ranching in the mountains of Colorado.