NEW YORK, NY.- The National Arts Club and its Fine Arts Committee presents a survey of portraiture by the renowned American photographer, Michael Halsband. The free exhibition, Halsband Portraits is on display March 30th – April 25th and includes two unseen works.

Halsband’s 1985 iconic portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol no. 143 in boxing gloves became such a staple of popular culture that its appropriation by contemporary visual artists and street artists continues thirty years on. This was an auspicious early moment in a career that saw Halsband photographing a canon of 20th century artists, writers and musicians including James Brown, David Byrne, Jim Carroll, Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop, LL Cool J, Klaus Nomi, R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, Hunter S. Thompson, Peter Tosh, AC/DC and many more. This exhibition at The National Arts Club spans over three decades of the artist’s portraits, including two never-before exhibited works: a photograph from the 1985 Warhol Basquiat with boxing gloves series and an up-close 35mm film of The Rolling Stones’ Live Performance during their Tattoo You tour.

Halsband’s approach to portraiture is focused on observation and the practice of allowing subjects to reveal themselves without influence or direction. He explains, "My heroes are sociologists and archaeologists; people who study cultures. They inspired me to flatten the whole thing and take the drama out of it. It's about more than just famous people, since every photo sitting has to be on level ground, with no-one having the upper hand. When I'm photographing, it is about letting what is, be.”

Dianne B. Bernhard, Director of Fine Arts Committees, comments: "Michael Halsband is a legend in his own time. He came out of a different, less sterile New York City and created these images that are wholly modern and fresh to this day. Michaels subjects include incredibly famous musicians, artists, and other cultural figures, but his approach allows him to break through any barriers and present these iconic figures to the viewer in new, unexpected ways, which is a completely refreshing experience."

Born and raised in New York City, Halsband attended the School of Visual Arts and began professionally photographing subjects including John Chamberlain, Klaus Nomi, Jim Rosenquist, The Rolling Stones, and Andy Warhol during this time. After graduating, he worked for Interview, Avenue and Rolling Stone and his portraits of various cultural trailblazers in this time included Kurtis Blow, James Brown, David Byrne, Joe Jackson, and Alan Vega, among others.

In 1981, after going on the road with James Brown, Halsband was assigned to photograph Keith Richards for the Rolling Stone cover. Consequently he was asked by Mick Jagger to be The Rolling Stones tour photographer the next year. Upon returning to New York City, he worked for Condé Nast which featured his work in GQ, Self, Vogue, House and Gardens, Glamour and Mademoiselle. Halsband spent the next seven years photographing fashion and portraits for top magazines, and making album covers for the likes of Iggy Pop, INXS, Deee-Lite and Shabba Ranks. He also worked on international ad campaigns and helped create the looks for the Gap and J.Crew, and the press kits for designers including Calvin Klein and Adrian Vittadini.

From fashion, Michael Halsband went back to working with musicians for record covers and directing music videos in addition to films on subjects ranging from Surfing to Farming. His documentary approach led him on many adventures; working with Al Pacino on his directorial debut documentary “Looking For Richard”, traveling to Cuba with Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Depp and as a result, Halsband was written into Thompson's book, "Kingdom of Fear.” His diverse career also included personal projects; six years of photographing dancers for the School of American Ballet, from 1986–1991, with underwriting from Danskin, USA. An extension of his work with the human figure, from 1989-1995 he created a series of nudes of strippers and sex show workers. Surfing was another subject that captured Halsband’s attention with a six-year long film project, SURF MOVIE: Reels 1-14, and the book Surf Book, a collaboration with renowned surfer, Joel Tudor, was published in 2005 by Channel Books. For the last decade, Halsband has continued to create 8 x 10 portraits of prominent artists, friends, and creative professionals.

Michael Halsband’s work is in the collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Miami Museum of Contemporary Art; The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; and the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York.