Michelle Bates

Photographer, educator and author Michelle Bates Michelle has been a passionate photographer since she was young, and learned her way around a camera in 1991 at the Maine Photographic Workshops, where she first discovered the Holga. Since then, Bates has shown work in solo exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest, Los Angeles and Israel, and in group shows around America, Italy, Germany and Thailand, photographing for weekly newspapers, album covers, performers, artists and many others.

Bates’ passion for low-tech photography has driven her to educate others about the joys of film and creativity, and she now lectures on plastic and toy cameras to groups all over the U.S., including the Society for Photographic Education, SF Camerawork, Powell’s Books and the Creative Center for Photography. She also teaches at Photographic Center Northwest, Newspace (PDX), Maine Media Workshops, The Julia Dean Photo Workshops and International Center of Photography in New York, among others. Bates is author of Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, widely recognized as the definitive guide to the world of Holga and Diana cameras and other toys that have helped this exciting creative genre continue to grow.