Bio

Michael Cardinali creates photographs stemming from an intimate sense of place and relationships. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, he lives in Massachusetts and teaches photography at the University of New Hampshire, where he is Senior Lecturer in Art and Art History. He earned an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and a BFA from SUNY Purchase.

Cardinali’s work has been exhibited across the U.S. and internationally, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, London, Edinburgh, Budapest and the United Arab Emirates. His first monograph, LOST Boston, was published in 2018 by +Kris Graves Projects. This publication is held in the library collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Duke University. His work has been supported by a Clowes Fund Fellowship to attend a Vermont Studio residency.

He has held workshops and presented lectures in New York, New England and beyond as well as serving as an exhibition jury member. His consulting work photographing museum collections has appeared in books, publications and ad campaigns, and he holds the position of Senior Object Photographer at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

News and Press

  • Scenes from a Floating World, on view at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC), September 6, 2022 – January 20, 2023
    Reception September 9, 5:30-7:00 pm
    Artist talk September 18, 3:00 pm
  • Fraction Magazine, Issue 117, December 2018
  • Boston Voyager Magazine, Meet Michael Cardinali, interview, June 18, 2018
  • Treat Gallery NYC, @treatamericaproject, Instagram takeover representing Massachusetts, May 27 – June 2, 2018
  • Photo of the Day, Don’t Take Pictures Magazine, online column, December 3, 2016
  • 2016 Dotphotozine Award for Excellence in Photography, finalist
  • Emily McInnes, Eye Buy Art from The Garden of Gardens, Eye Buy Art, June 12, 2012
  • Phillip Jung, Michael Cardinali, The Exposure Project online, November 19, 2010
  • The New York Optimist, Kris Graves Projects Presents Michael Cardinali, The New York Optimist blog, November 4 – 11, 2010
  • The Flat File, Michael Cardinali, Wall Space Gallery, October 15, 2010
  • Christine Finn, London Photo Show Features Striking Tech Mix, Wired.com: Underwire, February 2008
  • Artist Feature Section, Guide Magazine, Grand Prize Winner of Juried Competition, six-page feature, July 2007

Publications

  • Ten Years of Photographs, exhibition catalog of featured photographers spanning a decade of exhibitions, Midwest Center for Photography, 2019
  • International Photography Annual 5, Manifest Press, 2018
  • Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas, contributing photographer of artifacts, Getty Publications, 2017
  • The Polaroid Project, contributing photographer of artifacts to book on Polaroid photographs, Thames and Hudson, 2017
  • F-Stop Magazine, Issue #85, Home, October/November 2017
  • International Photography Annual 5, Manifest Press, 2017
  • F-Stop Magazine, Issue #75, Wonder-Full, February/March 2016
  • City Streets | Country Roads, Exhibition catalog, PhotoPlace Gallery, 2013
  • Countless Connecting Threads: MIT’s History Revealed Through its Most Evocative Objects, Deborah G. Douglas and Ariel Weinberg, MIT Press, 2013
  • Photographers on Photographers: The Mark-Making of Robert Kozma, Fototazo, July 2011
  • MIT 150 Exhibition, The Boston Globe, January 2, 2011
  • Polaroid Archives Provide Snapshot of History, Wired.com: Gadget Lab, May 15, 2010
  • Greetings from New York, Astoria Postcard, Buzzer Thirty Arts Organization, 2008
  • Gallery Guide Europe, Cover Photograph, February 2008
  • Watercolours and Drawings: Modern Works on Paper (catalogue) Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK, 2008