My name is Josh Michtom. I work in Cambridge as a public defender and live in (surprise!) Somerville, Mass. I started this project in the summer of 2005 while taking my one-year-old son Max for long walks in the stroller. Soon, I was going out on my own, usually early in the morning on my bicycle, and methodically exploring each street in search of more statues to photograph. As of November, 2006, I had covered about half the residential streets in Somerville, yielding pictures of 242 separate statues. Questions? Comments? Lucrative book deal offers? Send me an e-mail.
Rich Barlow's interview of me was published on Saturday, July 14, in the Boston Globe, and the influx of e-mail has been such that I feel I really must, finally, update this site. First off, thank you to everyone who has sent me lovely e-mails, especially all my fellow Somervillionaires. Such an outpouring of positivity really makes leaving Somerville hard. (I am moving to Hartford in August, where my wife, Anna, will be a professor at Wesleyan). Second, let me answer a few questions that people have been asking me, by providing a Frequently Asked Questions section:
Frequently Asked Questions
Will there be a 2008 calendar?
You betcha! I will put it together just as soon as I'm done taking the Connecticut bar exam at the end of July. I'll post information about the new calendar at this website and will hopefully manage to arrange to sell it at some local stores.
What's up with this show at the Paradise Lounge that is mentioned in the Globe article?
The Paradise Lounge is a small performance space and gallery (and bar) right next to the famous Paradise Rock Club at 969 Commonwealth Ave in Boston. 30 of my photographs have been on display there since May, and will remain until July 20. They're blown up, printed on archival quality paper, matted, and framed, and they look pretty sharp. The Paradise Lounge is also worth a trip because they have lots of live music, which is fun.
How can I get my hands on one of those framed, matted, archival-quality prints?
I thought you'd never ask! If you hurry, you can go to the Paradise Lounge and purchase one there. Whatever doesn't sell there by the time the show ends on July 20 will come home with me and likely be offered for sale at a yard sale at my house on August 5. Check back here for more details on that. Of course, the Paradise show has only 30 prints, while the whole collection has 242 now. If you would like a framed, matted print of any other picture, you can always Send me an e-mail. Prices vary depending on the photo and the size, but I guarantee they will come out looking good - I get them printed at Boston Photo Imaging on Boylston Street, and those folks are good at what they do, and really really nice.
What will happen to your project once you decamp to the wilds of central Connecticut?
I'm talking with another local artist about taking up the project. I'll post more here when I know the plan.
Why haven't you taken a picture of the madonna(s) on my block?
I've been going methodically, street by street, and getting ever farther from my house between Union Square and the Cambridge line. If I haven't snapped your statue, I probably just haven't reached your block yet. My progress has also been slowed a lot by the birth of my second child in January.
Why don't you publish a book of these photographs? I will do that just as soon as I find some deep-pocketed publisher willing to take on the project. Seriously - I would love nothing more than to have a coffee table book. So please, publishers and agents, get in touch.
