Duane Michals, a photographer known for his narrative-driven and often enigmatic images, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 94. His death at a hospital was confirmed by Bridget Moore of DC Moore Gallery, which represented him.

Michals, a self-taught photographer, gained recognition for introducing storytelling and a literary sensibility to modern photography. Rather than aligning with any established artistic movement or conforming to traditional technical standards, he carved out a unique style characterized by sequences of black-and-white photographs often accompanied by handwritten captions or titles.

Over his career, Michals published more than 25 books and held regular exhibitions from the late 1960s into his nineties. Notable retrospectives of his work were held at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh from 2014 to 2015 and the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan in 2019. His photographic narratives, which could range from four to 30 images, frequently explored metaphysical, autobiographical, and fantastical themes. Inspired by figures such as William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Joseph Cornell, and René Magritte, his images transcended typical documentary photography.

Some of his well-known sequences include “Chance Meeting” (1970), depicting a metaphysical encounter between strangers, and “The Return of the Prodigal Son” (1982), a cryptic parable with biblical overtones. In “Death Comes to the Old Lady” (1969), Michals employed five panels without text to portray a woman’s transformation after a spectral visitation; his grandmother and father played the central roles in that piece.

Michals valued the written word as a complement to his photographs, once describing writing as a means to “talk about what you cannot see in the photograph,” adding voice to their silent imagery. His captions often carried a lyrical or wry tone, as in “My Father Could Walk in the Sky” (1989), a poetic reflection paired with a double-exposure photograph.

Born Duane Stephen Michals on February 18, 1932, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, he was the son of a steelworker and a live-in domestic worker. After studying graphic design at the University of Denver and serving in the military, he moved to New York City in 1955, where he initially worked in publishing. Michals discovered photography in 1958 while traveling in the Soviet Union with a borrowed camera.

His early work included documentary-style images of Manhattan’s empty streets in “Empty New York” (1964-65), which showed a detached, Atget-influenced aesthetic. However, he ultimately turned away from documentary photography, calling it “nothing,” instead crafting staged sequences with minimal props and settings.

Despite early acclaim—his work appeared in a landmark 1966 exhibition at the George Eastman House and earned a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970—Michals’s photographs did not achieve high market prices, a reality he sometimes criticized. To support himself, he took on commercial and celebrity portrait commissions for magazines like Newsweek and Fortune.

Michals was openly gay at a time when it was uncommon, and he shared a long partnership with architect Frederick Gorree; they married in 2011 and remained together until Gorree’s death in 2017. Michals had no immediate survivors.

His work often explored themes of youth, aging, death, and the mystical, balancing humor with profound inquiry. In his later years, he collaborated with filmmaker Josiah Cuneo on short films that echoed the storytelling style of his photographic sequences.

Michals once said, “I believe the only true knowledge is through experience,” expressing a lifelong commitment to capturing not just images but the feelings behind them. His legacy lies in expanding photography’s expressive possibilities beyond the visible world to include the deeply personal and intangible.