I have a new website
#95: Introducing a new home for my photo work — Happy Birthday to me!
Today I turn 31.
When I was still 29, I reached out to my friend Ian about making me a new website.
I was fortunate when he replied and proposed we trade services.
Parsing through and organizing about a decade of photos was no small task. But after a year of sifting through my archives, I have something I am proud to show off to friends and prospective clients.
Huge shoutout to Ian Hatcher-Williams for his time developing and leading this project along, and another huge shoutout to Sam Faulkner for providing the design and new brand elements for me.
First thing you’ll notice is a new name that Sam worked into a beautiful serif wordmark:
I’ve slowly leaked the name change into my online presence, and I guess it’s due a quick explainer. The simple explanation is that there are thousands of Michael Tuckers. So while I didn’t want a full-on pseudonym, I did feel it important to separate myself and claim an ‘artist-name’ of sorts. There’s not a ton to this decision, to be honest — I just liked it.
The point of it all
The entire reason I wanted a new website is because up until now, my website’s always just been one page of some photos I thought well-represented my work. And while that’s fine and good, I wanted to create something that better represented the totality of my work and helped market it to my ideal clients. Overall I really like this process! Marketing can feel like a dirty word sometimes, but at the end of the day, it is important to me that I feel accurately represented.
How it’s organized
The site is divided into three categories: Commissions (work I was paid to make), Personal Works (art for art’s sake), and an Archive (anything and everything else).
Commissions contains three subcategories: Editorial, Lifestyle, and Hospitality. It’s a diverse collection of work that is built to showcase what I can produce for commercial clients of any size.
Personal Works is a vulnerable place. It’s the first time I’m really positioning myself as an artist in the public sphere. I have weird feelings about it! But at the end of the day, it’s important to me to make art that asks questions and to share those works with the world. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll see my photographic style seeping through in these projects, and for the first time ever you’ll see actual projects organized as a whole.
The Archive was important to me. It’s kind of like following my work on Instagram but it’s way cooler than Instagram, and I own it! It gives me the absolute freedom to share whatever I want whenever I want. I’ve filled it out quite a bit, but will probably continue to retro-actively upload work, old and new. I enjoy that it shows the full range of my life and career in photography.
How it works
You can click through to individual projects and view them as a grid or as a slideshow (desktop only). On mobile you’ll view projects as a straight-line page of images. I want you to view the site on computer! Any photography website is best that way. The archive in particular is a wonderful experience on desktop.
The challenge of making things
Nothing ever feels complete. There’s always more work to do. But at some point, you have to share your work with the world. There is so much copy on the website that I will continue to tinker with. But I’m happy with where it’s at and I want you to see it all.
A year is a long time to be working on something as singular as a website. There were points at which I literally wanted to drop the whole thing and start from scratch. I am so glad I did not do that! It turned out to be exactly what I need and wanted in a new website. So! Without further ado…
My new website →
None of this would be possible without the people who have trusted me to execute their vision up unto this point — clients and friends alike, thank you. None of this would be possible without my hugely supportive and equally ambitious partner, Mary — thank you babe. None of this would be possible without my parents, who in the beginning trusted me to chase after what I wanted to at my own pace and provided the resources to comfortably do so — thank you so much. None of this would be possible without my closest friends, who have always taken an interest in what I do and have always been far more important to me than my work and my art — thank y’all. And kind of hilariously, none of it would be possible without my best friends’ coffee shop, where I have been sitting in the window every morning for the past 6 years — thank you Darlene, thank you Jonathan.
Dude the new site is SO good 🤌
Gorgeous website and photos! Thanks for sharing with us. I enjoy keeping up with you through your newsletter :) Can't wait to see what else you create!