Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen

The Catcher in the Eye Project was essentially an ongoing performance from 1995 to 1998. The inspiration for the performance character I worked with came
from Holden Caulfield in the all time American classic Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.
The act of shooting phonies, that Holden feels is a righteous one, is in this performance done with a camera and a flash instead of a gun as he suggests.

You can see more images from this series, if you visit THIS page!

The Project can also be seen in the Fall 2012 Edition of 1814 Magazine, see more HERE or in above Slideshow

Catcher in the Eye

The above selection of images, are from the project “Catcher in the Eye”, that essentially was an
ongoing performance from 1995 to 1998. The inspiration for the performance character I worked with,
came from Holden Caulfield in the all time American Classic “Catcher in the Rye” by JD Salinger. The act of
shooting phonies, that Holden feels is a righteous one, is in this Performance done with a camera and flash
instead of a hunting rifle as he suggests. It was also this suggestion that Mark David Chapman took literally
and with a handgun shot and killed John Lennon.
At the time when most of these photos were taken, I was more or less living at the Gershwin Hotel,
with my girlfriend Lynne Packwood who was from Liverpool and the in-house interior designer for the
renovations of the former half-way home.

Andy Warhol Influence

In the mid-nineties, there was an Andy Warhol revival with exhibitions of his influence on Popular Culture
along with several films about, or related to him.
The Gershwin Hotel was the center for most Warhol related events in New York City,
Billy Name was the Artist in Residence, Richard Bernstein had his huge pop art portraits of Picasso in
almost every room, there was a real Campell Soup Can in a plexi-glass box by the elevators with Warhol’s
signature and Andy was at one of the many parties held in the hotel, contacted by a Gypsy Psychic Lady
with a Crystal Ball. The only way for me to feel that I could take an active part of what was going on around
me, was to become part of my surroundings, taking shield behind my camera and with the flash exposing
the truth, to interact and communicate while catching eyes in the dark.
Shooting and Catching my Darlings on the film in my camera.

The Performance

Many rolls of film were shot at each attended event, but rarely did more than a couple of images come
out per roll. The images are the results of the actual performances. I would, if people asked why I was
taking pictures of them, show them my printed images in a small portfolio (this was the time before digital
cameras) made as a conversation piece/ice breaker. Not all understood the art part in sticking a huge flash
into someone’s face in the dark, so with the book, I had proof that I actually took photos and some of them
came out ok.

Anton Perich & NIGHT Magazine

Anton Perich, who had taken photos at Max’s Kansas City and Studio 54, was when he first
came to New York from Croatia also a young outsider, with a different way of looking and photographing
his surroundings. His magazine NIGHT had in the late 70’s been the Facebook of the Studio 54 scene–with
images of all the kids, stars and regulars–was housed in the clubs offices. The images I was producing when
I met Anton had a similar energy and was soon published in NIGHT. We soon became good friends, held
release events for NIGHT at many of the nightclubs where my photos was taken and several of the clubs
even started to take out whole page and back-cover ads in the magazine. The NIGHT Magazine offices was
soon moved to a room at the Gershwin Hotel, that also dedicated a whole floor to NIGHT with pages and
photos out of the magazine as wall paper.

The Exhibition – Empire State Building

The series of images in this issue of 1814 was first shown in April 1997 on the 80 th Floor of the Empire State
Building. The very thin and thick negatives and chromes were scanned and printed digitally on oversized
40”wide canvas, with many of the people in the actual photos, in the space at the opening event. This in
line with what I thought Warhol would have done at that time and inspired by the fact that Anton had
been doing digital prints with his homemade painting machine since the mid 70’s. The opening for the
exhibition “Catcher in the Eye”, included a fashion show by a Swedish Designer, DJ’s, open bar, Drag Queen
Security Guards and a pretty good view over New York City.