Duane Michals – Take One and See Mt. Fujiyama (1976)

It’s a bit difficult to read the text giving the low-res nature of this assemblage. And since it’s a bit of a challenge to find all the individual photos (presented legibly) in one place, I went ahead and transcribed everything:

1. It was a hot day. The book was dull. He was bored.
2. Someone slipped an envelope under the door.
3. There was something peculiar written on it. (Take one and see Mt. Fujiyama)
4. Inside were some green pills. Without any hesitation he gulped down a pill.
5. He felt like a balloon with it’s air being let out. Instantly he became six inches tall.
6. The door squeaked behind him, as the largest woman he had ever seen entered the room.
7. She grew larger as she approached his chair and began to tower over him.
8. She did not to see him. He was excited by her size.
9. His excitement turned to terror, when he realized that she was going to sit on his chair and on him.
10. As her colossal ass descended upon him, he tried to run but was paralyzed. His tiny legs refused to move.
11. He stood frozen with excitement, as the big behind settled down, closer and closer.
12. She sat on him.
13. Miraculously, in the darkness, he began to see the snow covered peaks of Mt. Fujiyama.
14. [No text]
15. [No text]

I had never seen this until this morning–it’s superbly Lynchian (even if David Lynch would’ve been in the process of struggling to get Eraserhead made at the time Michals unleased this on the world.)

The interesting thing in putting this together is that there appears to be variances in the captioning based on editions? Also, there’s at least two versions of the 6th frame (v1, v2).

I actually think that v2 is probably better because the way it reads above, the frame 6 functions like an insert shot whereas and with v2 there’s a sense that the whole thing is covered in a single master shot.