Michael Somoroff is a communication strategist, multimedia artist, director, photographer, and teacher. Since 1980, he has directed projects, created successful communication concepts, given comment and made critically acclaimed content for Fortune 500 corporations, advertising agencies, magazines, media companies, museums and cultural institutions around the world. He has collaborated at educational and cultural institutions and is currently an artist in residence at the Wyss Translational Center in association with the University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich. As a teacher and a cultural commentator, he has partnered with the State University of New York, Stony Brook, the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas, the International Center of Photography, New York City, the School of Visual Arts, New York City and the Jung Center, Houston, Texas. He is also the director of the Somoroff Archive consisting of historic photography, editorial content and advertising produced in New York City between 1940 through the turn of the millennium.

Somoroff ’s work can be found in museums, art fairs, and exhibitions around the world. He is also the author of five
books. Journalist Elisabeth Bard referred to his creative approach in the New York Times as “Madison Avenue meets the Italian Renaissance.” In the international advertising industry, he is recognized as one of the top commercial directors in the world, regularly contributing award-winning films and photography for companies seeking to enhance their brand identity and grow sales. He is the first artist to be exhibited directly on Piazza St. Marco, in Venice – on the occasion of the Venice Biennale 2011. He is internationally represented in many perminant collections including: the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, the Hirshorn Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, the International Center of Photography, New York City and Museo Correr, Venice, Italy.

Early life and career

Michael Somoroff, the son of eminent still life and product photographer Ben Somoroff, was born in New York City in the middle of the golden age of editorial design and analog photography; a time Milton Glaser referred to as “A Moment”. His father, is considered by many, together with Irving Penn, one of the most important figures in American still life photography. He is credited with being the first comprehensive, product film maker, establishing “tabletop” as a genre of film making. As a student of the legendary art director, Alexey Brodovitch, at the Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts), Ben Somoroff introduced Michael at an early age to Brodovitch’s revolutionary and culturally foundational philosophy, defining creative work as a part of one’s self-realization process. This idea went on to become a primary influence on a generation of photographers, artists, and designers that pioneered cultural media. It was to eventually become a bedrock philosophy in all areas of cultural expression through the second half of the twentieth century, with its inherent demand for authenticity. 

Alexey Brodovitch as a Dominant Influence

Together with other students of Ben Somoroff’s generation, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Robert Frank, Arnold Newman, Lillian Bassman, Hiro, Louis Faurer, Ben Rose, Art Kane, Frank Zachary, Henry Wolf, Steve Frankfurt and many others, Michael’s father encouraged Michael to make unexpected images and to push the boundaries of conventional ways of thinking and seeing. A practice Michael is well known for.

Brodovitch urged his students: “Show me something I haven’t seen before. Astonish me!” Thus creating an important phase of experimentation and innovation in American media, finally spreading throughout the world. Even today, the Brodovitch philosophy remains a dominant force in all areas of cultural production by making the demand for authenticity as a prerequisite to any serious, artistic endeavor. This is the driving force throughout both the elder and the younger, Somoroff careers, making them a unique bi-generational event from an art historical perspective and one of the longest operating studios surviving from the “Mad Men” era of photography, editorial and advertising production. Michael continues his unique artistic practice connected to the foundations of 20th century art and communication problem solving internationally today.

The Onset of Professional Life: New York City

As his technical prowess grew, the young Somoroff often did freelance work for many of his father’s and mother’s colleagues and friends, gaining a reputation as a skillful assistant. As an example, he frequented photographers Ben Rose, Sol Mednick, Louis Faurer, Melvin Sokolsky, Art Kane, Herman Landsoff and André Kertész. These and many other associations are documented in the book A Moment. Master Photographers: Portraits by Michael Somoroff published by Damiani in 2012. He also attended the New School for Social Research in affiliation with the Parsons School of Design. He was given his first magazine assignment by renowned graphic designers Milton Glaser and Walter Bernard. In 1979, Richard Avedon facilitated his first exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York City, after reviewing Somoroff’s portfolio. The review at ICP was conducted personally by Cornell Capa and William A. Ewing.

Photography

Michael Somoroff gained recognition as a photographer in the late seventies after his first major exhibition of still lives at the International Center for Photography in New York City. He then established his own studio and regularly contributed to America and European publications such as Stern, Elle, Vogue, Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Der Spiegel, Esquire, Zeit Magazine and Time, as well as to international advertising agency’s projects. His portraiture, nudes, and still life photography have garnered a worldwide audience, receiving critical acclaim on the walls of museums and galleries. He located to Europe in 1980 and today is based in both the U.S and Europe.

Motion Picture Directing

Following in the footsteps of his famous, director father Ben Somoroff, a pioneer in motion picture and product filmmaking, commonly referred to as “Table Top”, Michael became a director after winning several awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. His career as a commercial director was launched officially in London in collaboration with the famous Directors Studio production company created by Jim Baker, where the foundations of the commercial, production industry were solidified by transforming brand name photographers into commercial directors. Along with the introduction to film production given to him through his father, Michael Somoroff initially developed his directorial skills under the tutelage of more senior and accomplished directors in London, including his father’s colleague and fellow Brodovitch alumni Lester Bookbinder. Sought after for his unique lighting and composition skills, Somoroff began directing films primarily soon after returning to the U.S. In early 1989 at the invitation of the legendary Columbia Pictures executive George Cooney, CEO of EUE Screen Gems, he returned to New York and fully committed himself to directing films. Shortly after, Michael Somoroff went into partnership with the newly organized D&H Macguffin Films LTD, which was re-organized as the present company, simply, Macguffin Films LTD. He remained a senior partner there until 2015. 

Sought after for his unique conceptual abilities, sense of compensation and lighting technique, Michael Somoroff has made a significant impact on the commercial production industry particularly in the area of tabletop/food and product film-making. He is credited for his role in establishing the aesthetics of food and drink imagery in advertising, and film-making specifically, pioneering slow-motion, close-up photography and various ways of amplifying image and appetite appeal. He has worked with major brands across the world, including Asahi, Diageo, Unilever, Pepsi, Burger King, and Proctor and Gamble to name a few. He is known for creating particularly sales effective, visual concepts and for his ability to analyze and find obstacles to people’s connection to a brand, offering in response, practicle, cost effective, solutions to over come these obsticles.

The Art World

In addition to his photography and directing career, Somoroff is also known in the art world. He is recognized for his unique approach to creating content and his use of philosophical signifiers to form new communication structures with his art. He is successful in both the fine art and the commercial art world’s and is known for blurring the distinction between the two. His art is focused on creating all forms of wealth and personal growth. He is a “reality Architect”, and an expert in creating communication that promotes sustainable community. In an article published in the Arts and Leisure section of The Sunday New York Times, the author described Somoroff’s approach to creating content as “big budgets, large teams, high-tech tools and an artist-manager equally at ease with corporate sponsors and Chelsea gallerists.” The Times went on to say, “Mr. Somoroff’s technical know-how and visual instincts may come from his commercial backgrounds, but the focus of his art has always been a spiritual and philosophical inquiry”. Exhibition Director Richard Klein at the Aldrich Museum, in commenting about Somoroff said “The artist as entrepreneur is a model that is coming to the fore.” John Lee of Bravin/Lee projects, Chelsea New York City quoted “he (Michael Somoroff) is going to use every means possible to convince the viewer”. Somoroff studied religion and philosophy in Jerusalem, Israel for over two decades and is a published teacher/consultant on the subject.

Selected Projects

The Vegetable Series, ICP 1979

Michael Somoroff’s first major, museum exhibition was held at the International Center for Photography in New York City in 1979. The exhibition was titled The Vegetable Series and was organized under the direction of Cornell Capa and William A. Ewing.
The young photographers’ work was brought to the attention of the museum by Richard Avedon and Yasuhiro Wakabayashi
(HIRO), who served as mentors to the young Somoroff. The exhibition received positive attention and was profiled in The New York Times by Suzanne Slesin, who introduced the then 21 year old, fledgling photographer to the world by stating “His mother was a model, his father a well-known still-life photographer, and by the time Michael Somoroff was 19, he had already opened his own studio”. Following the success of the exhibition, Somoroff received many editorial and advertising assignments from international magazines, launching his career.

Matrix of Sensations, Donald Kuspit, 2004

Illumination I at the Rothko Chapel, 2006

In 2006, Somoroff was invited by the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, to create a large-scale outdoor installation, Illumination I. It was the first such invitation ever made by the Chapel, and the only installation since Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (Newman, 1963) was placed there some thirty years prior. Illumination I – a 12 ton sculpture of light translated via computer programs using photography as their platform, stands over 20 feet high and weighs more than 22,000 pounds. It is a sculptural translation of light falling through the ruins of a composite mosque, a virtual relic of the war in Iraq. Somoroff found his original inspiration through his own experience at the Rothko Chapel. He imagined the chapel as a metaphysical stage wherein events from anywhere unfold on the horizon and matrix of eternity. Taking elements from photographs and using the original floor plan of the Rothko Chapel as a foundation, he employed a 3D animation program to create a virtual, sacred space – a composite mosque. The finished sculpture extends photography into the realm of sculpture – the first to do so. Particularly given it was produced at the onset of the millinium. It is a frozen ray of light captured as it would fall through the window of that virtual space. As the art historian David Anfam wrote in the exhibition catalog: “Somoroff’s project renews Rothko’s artistic endeavor, which, in a nutshell, sought to combine perceptual immediacy with spiritual import.” As Rothko said upon completing the Chapel paintings: “I wanted to paint both the finite and the infinite.” Mark Rothko’s son, Christopher Rothko, has commented “Illumination I is a very ambitious piece. Its scale is large-physically, of course-but also in all disparate elements that it aims to combine:sculpture, architecture, fresco and video all make the short list. And the thematic aspirations are even larger: politics, human rights, spirituality, sacredness, humanism. It is like a grand opera…“

Illumination at Bravin/Lee Programs, Chelsea, New York City, 2007

In 2007, Illumination, a companion piece to the sculpture Illumination I, was exhibited as an environmental, video installation at the BravinLee Programs, , Chelsea, New York City. The BravinLee show included five digital projections. Including the first single lens, three-hundred, sixty degree projection, creating an immersive, video installation using high definition technology. The installation was placed in a pavilion specifically built for this purpose on 5000 sq. feet on the ground floor of the gallery’s building. Somoroff collaborated with Emmy Award winning, production designer and childhood friend, Keith Raywood. The centerpiece was the single lens projection, animation of a virtual mosque, projected on a 280 degree curved 14 meter screen. Illumination was a synthesis of film, video, high-definition computer animation, and photography. These components experienced in concert, created an architectural environment that was deeply, spiritually impactful and disruptive. The project was described in Per Contra magazine as “Michael Somoroff’s unprecedented creations, which can be counted both separately and together, as groundbreaking and genre-defying. Each work generates a total immersion experience realized through the application of invented technologies. Each reflects the artist’s passion for light and its provocative use as both a real and virtual medium–for video that is sculpture, and sculpture that is architecture. It is a conversion experience that may be once in a lifetime, but will hopefully last for all time – will radically change one’s perspective on life, one’s basic attitude to one’s own life as well as that of other human beings.”

Generali 2005

In 2005 Somoroff was invited personally by Generali CEO Dr. Walter Thiessen, to create art for the corporate head quarters in Cologne, Germany. Ever blurring the lines between art and commerce, Somoroff is long known for his provocative pursuit of collapsing the distinction between fine art and commercial art.(see above reference) As a result, the CEO retained him directly as an artist/creative director and communication strategist, to create an entire re-education and communication program targeted specifically at stimulating the company’s productivity. Somoroff produced two internal publications: the first was a comprehensive analysis of the corporate logo, the history of its development and its re-alignment with the brand, The Symbolic Power of Art and the Corporation. The second was a training book designed for upper management and the sales force called: Creating Wealth Through Sharing. Somoroff consulted the construction of the German head quarters to ensure that it became a visually stimulating environment, progressing out-of-box thinking and innovation on the part of the entire Generali work force. He was commissioned to create large-scale artworks, which were installed, as well as to work directly with the CEO, to create art placed throughout the Generali offices to grow productivity. He developed initial projects leveraging art as a way of interfacing with the public and workforce in order to integrate them and stimulate sales. Projects such as the creation of an initial art collection and a large-scale, traveling installation defined innovation within the company and were considered radical by many at the time. Somoroff suggested exhibitions, videos, publications and installations as a way of art-as-entertainment, rather than using classical, strategic marketing models, making him one of the first artists to recognize the cultural transition from advertising to entertainment as a contemporary sales mechanism. He achieved engaging results by reallocating annually, tax deductible, marketing budgets that included serious art in order to grow revenues and increase brand identification. The results of his many innovations were rewarded with significantly, increasing annual budgets for years.

The Red Sea, Kunst Station St. Peter, Cologne, Friedhelm Mennekes, 2008

2008 Somoroff was honored with the invitation to create the finale, “farewell” exhibition for celebrated curator Father Friedhelm Mennekes of St. Peter Art Station, Cologne, Germany. He created a sculpture named The Red Sea, which stood three stories tall and was made from thousands of pieces of wood. It was visited by several thousand people and culminated in a crowded, standing room only, Somoroff lecture before the Easter Mass. Reviewed in the Kolner Stadt Anzeiger “Somoroff stages this archaic story of belief and doubt, devotion and fear with humble simplicity. Simple slats pile up to form a mighty colossus, a gigantic wave that seems frozen, but which could collapse at any moment, dragging all life with it into the black seabed. A truly dramatic sculpture, breathtaking, which elicits a new dimension from the architecture of the church space.”

“Thousands of pieces of split wood form a sculptural implementation of the division of the Red Sea, which, at ten meters long, takes up the entire central nave and at a height of twelve meters exceeds the galleries. Visitors have the opportunity to pass through the Red Sea through the narrow gap and thus enter the world of experience of the people of Israel, into the field of tension of the believer as known in the Judeo-Christian tradition: between fear and hope, doubt and belief, grumbling and confess.” 

Thomas Brill, Bildjournelist.

August Sander and Michael Somoroff, On the Occasion of the Venice Biennale, 2011

In 2010 Somoroff finished his work: Absence of Subject, which was exhibited on the occasion of the 2011 Venice Biennale. It was the first of its kind to be exhibited directly on Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. Michael Somoroff’s project Absence of Subject, began as a way to reconsider August Sander’s life work, People of the 20th Century, a typology of the human race begun in 1911. It took Somoroff seven months to complete the first image and seven years to specifically select forty works and then to ‘excavate’ the subjects from Sander’s iconic images. In making the work, Somoroff questioned his own connections to Sander’s subjects. By removing Sanders’ subjects, enigmatic figures to Somoroff, he revealed the fragility of mortality. Absence of Subject is an exercise in appropriation, but more astonishingly it stands as a document that reflects the development of art in the 20th century. Amber Terranova in The New Yorker called it “an unconventional homage” to legendary August Sander. Absence of Subject has toured extensively to many museums throughout Europe and the U.S. The entire body of the “Absence of Subject” project, 40 black and white photographs, 7 video installations and a book by the same name, was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas) under the direction of world renown, photography curator Anne Wilkes Tucker, who said of the work: “by offering comparison between presence and absence, he (Somoroff) imitates the experience of loss, something rarely achieved through photographs.”

Giannina Braschi Recitation Videos, 2011

In 2011, Somoroff produced a series of short videos of poet Giannina Braschi reading from United States of Banana, a work of Postcolonial literature;. Novelist Mircea Cartarescu referred to Braschi’s postmodern masterpiece as “The best work of art on the subject of September 11th that I have ever experienced.”

A Moment. Master Photographers: Portraits by Michael Somoroff

In 1978, as an assistant, Somoroff began photographing twenty-five of his heroes, mentors and the legends of analog photography. As an assistant to many of photography’s giants, known to him as colloquies and friends of his parents, these photo sessions granted to Michael were deeply personal, and the body of work reflects a mutual respect between artists. Nearly 45 years after the first photo session, this historic body of work was published in 2012 in the book A Moment: Master Photographers, Portraits by Michael Somoroff.
American Photo Magazine noted “In a series of evocative portraits, Somoroff shows us photographic legends whose names are more familiar than their faces, including such elusive figures as André Kertész, Brassaï, Robert Doisneau, Arnold Newman, Horst and others.” Lucy Davies in The Telegraph wrote: “Extraordinary to look into eyes that have shaped the way we have seen the 20th century.” Stern magazine went on to say “the total of 30 large format, black and white photographs, make the inclusion of Michael Somoroff’s self portrait a must.” Acclaimed as one of the best photography books, worldwide of the year 2012 (Pop Photo) and Best Photography Book of the Year award from American Photographer.

Selected Collections

Somoroff’s work is held in museum and art collections around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and Museo Correr, Venice Italy, The International Center for Photography, New York City.

Somoroff is an official “artist in residence” at the Wyss Translational Center, in association with the University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich.

Selected Publications

• The Vegetable Series, International Center of Photography, New York, 1985
• Kinder in Europa. Nicolai, 1988 ISBN 9783875842227.
• Image of the Not-Seen: Search for Understanding. The Rothko Chapel Art Series, 2005. ISBN 0945472048.
• Michael Somoroff: Illumination I, Rothko Chapel, Rothko Chapel Books, 2008. ISBN 9780979091605.
• Absence of Subject. Walter König, 2011. ISBN 978-0983615606.
• A Moment. Master Photographers, Portraits by Michael Somoroff. Damiani, 2012. ISBN 9788862082112.
• Two Crowns of The Egg. Michael Somoroff, Donald Kuspit, Giannina Braschi, Damiani, 2014. ISBN 9788862083539.
• The Eyes magazine special publication, Michael Somoroff, Absence of Subject, PhotoPlastik, 2014

Selected Exhibitions[edit]

• 2021: Absence of Subject, UnSeen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 2015: Installation Video: Inauguration of the Wyss Zürich Translational Center ETH Zürich and University of Zürich
• 2015: Master Photographers, ​Sol Mednick Gallery at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia
• 2015: Absence of Subject, Ruth Leuchter gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
• 2015: Absence of Subject, Villa Vauban, Luxembourg City Museum
• 2014: Paris Photo Los Angeles, mixed collection, Julian sander Gallerie
• 2014: Retrospective, MIA Art Fair, Milan, Italy
• 2014: Absence of Subject, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
• 2014: Absence of Subject, Sirius Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland
• 2014: Absence of Subject, Encuentros Abiertos in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2014: Absence of Subject, Museo Nacional des Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay
• 2014: Portraits and Nudes, Paris Photo, Feroz Gallery, Paris, France
• 2013; Master Photographers, Fondazione Francesco Fabbri, Treviso, Italy,
• 2013: Master Photographers, Galerie Julian Sander, Bonn, Germany, 
• 2013: Absence of Subject, Sala Municipal de Exposiciones de las Francesas, Valladolid, Spain
• 2013: Absence of Subject, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife, Spain, 
• 2013: Absence of Subject, Centro de Arte la Regenta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
• 2013: Absence of Subject, Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy
• 2012: Tefillah I, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
• 2012: Absence of Subject, Gallerie Image, Aarhus, Denmark
• 2012: Absence of Subject, Villa Brandolini F4 Un’Idea di Fotografia, Solighetto-Treviso, Italy,
• 2012: Tefillah 1, Art Basel, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Basel, Switzerland
• 2008: Absence of the Subject, Fotofest Houston, Offsite, Houston, Texas, 2008; 2011: Absense of Subject, Piazza San Marco, on the occasion of the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
• 2008-2015: Illumination 1, OMI International Art Center, Sculpture park, Ghent, NY
• 2008: Genesis, Video Animation during Easter Mass, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Köln, Germany
• 2008: The Red Sea, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Köln, Germany
• Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Collective Work, Abu Dhabi, Emirates Palace
• 2007: Vitamin W, The Wonder Factor, Newark, New Jersey, USA
• 2006: Illumination, Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas, 2006; Illumination, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, 2007; BravinLee Programs, Chelsea, New York City, NY, 2007; Illumination, OMI International Art Center, Sculpture park, Ghent, NY, 2008-2012
• 2005: Michael Rees, Michael Somoroff, Yael Kanarek & Manfred Mohr: Consciousness and Process, The Digital in Sculpture, Photography, Animation Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2005: Integrating the Digital Consciousness, Art Houston, Houston, Texas, USA, Deborah Colton Gallery, in collaboration with Steven Sacks.
• 2005: Touch and Temperament, Steve Sacks/Bitforms Gallery, ARCO, Madrid
• “The Physics of Spirituality”, Westwood Gallery, Soho, New York City, USA.
• “Digital Consciousness, Michael Somoroff, Michael Rees” during Art Cologne Dieter Zeibig, K99, Köln, Germany
• 2003: “Consciousness and Process, The Digital in Sculpture, Photography, Animation.” Michael Rees & Michael Somoroff, Silvermine Guild Art Center, New Canaan, CT, USA.
• Mucsarnok Palace of Art, Budapest.
• Museum of Design and the ARCHA Theatre, Prague, Czech Republic. State Gallery of Art, Sopot, Poland.
• State Museum of Technique and Design, Warsaw, Poland.
• Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI, USA.
• High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA.
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA.
• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA. Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI, USA
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
• 1996: AICP Exhibiton (Association of Independant Commercials Producers)
• Mucsarnok Palace of Art, Budapest.
• State Gallery of Art, Sopot, Poland.
• State Museum of Technique and Design, Warsaw. Museum of Design and the ARCHA Theatre, Prague.
• Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI, USA.
• High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Ga, USA.
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA.
• 1994: AICP Exhibition (Association of Independant Commercials Producers) Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI, USA.
• 1986: SOMOROFF: Moving Nudes, Perrain Gallerie, Paris, France
• 1986: Frankfurt Kunstverein, Men Seeing Men, Frankfurt, Germany
• 1985: The Vegetable Series, Olympus Galerie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 1985: Photokina, Modern Color Photography, curated by Manfred Heiting, Köln, Germany
• 1985: The Vegetable Series, Olympus Galerie, Hamburg, Germany 
• 1980: Photokina, Sixty years of Photography, Cologne, Germany
• 1980: The Vegetable Series, The International Center for Photography, New York City
• 1978: Rizzoli International, Michael Somoroff, New York City

Awards

• 1987 Kodak book Prize, Best Photography Book of the Year, Kinder of Europe
• 1994 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Gold Metal, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
• 1996 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Gold Metal, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
• 1984-1985 Bronze and Gold Lions, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
• 2012: American Photo Best Photo Books of the Year prize, A Moment. Master Photographers: Portraits by Michael Somoroff
• Clio, Andy Awards,CA Awards, Mobius Awards, Canadian Besse Award, New York Art Directors Club, Society of Publication Designers Award

Honors

• Official “artist in residence” at the Wyss Translation Center, University of Zurich and a communications consultant collaborating with ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
• Executive Director, New Light Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel
• New York City Board Member, The Sculptor’s Guild of America
• Honorary Executive Committee Member, Sculpture Center, Queens, New York
• Honorary Member of the judging committee, Director’s Guild of America Film Festival Member of the Director’s Guild of America

Grants

• 1979: Eastman Kodak Co. – The Philharmonic Project
• 1979: Nikon Corporation, – The Philharmonic Project
• 1980: Spring Mills Corporation Installation

Publishing Collaborations

• Abschied von der Realität, by Joachim Koch, Rowohlt Verlag 1988
• 2006: You Should See Yourself, Jewish Identity in Post Modern American Culture by Vincent Brook, Rutgers University Press, 2006
• Art Kane by Jonathan Kane, Holly Anderson, Michael Somoroff, Peter Doggett
• Maripol Polaroids, by Maripol, forward by Michael Somoroff

Art Fairs

Arco, Art Basil, Mia, the Armory, Paris Photo, Photokina, Photofest Houston, UnSeen Amsterdam 

• ^ Terranova, Amber (April 2014). “The Subject of No Subject”. The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Segal, David (2011-10-08). “Grilled Chicken, That Temperamental Star”. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “Ben-somoroff”. 8 February 2017.
• ^ “Ben Somoroff”. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Selsin, Suzanne (10 October 1979). “One Man’s View Of Cut‐Up Vegetables”. The New York Times.
• ^ “Somoroff, the vegetable series”. International Center of Photography. 2016-05-17. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “”A Moment” with Michael Somoroff”. LOENKE magazine. 2016-06-05. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Segal, David (8 October 2011). “In Food Commercials, Flying Doughnuts and Big Budgets”. The New York Times.
• ^ “AI-AP | DART » Master Photographers by Michael Somoroff”. www.ai-ap.com. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
• ^ Bard, Elizabeth (June 17, 2007). “ART; A 50-Year-Old Upstart Redefines ‘Emerging'”. The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ “License a song from the album “Illumination” by Robert Rich”. ilicensemusic.com. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “Somoroff, Michael – Artist, USA – in front of his wooden sculpture…”Getty Images. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Terranova, Amber (March 1, 2014). “The Subject of No Subject”. The New Yorker. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ Dyer, Geoff (2017-10-11). “The Photographer Who Saw America’s Monuments Hiding in Plain Sight”. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “Sander and Somoroff. Absence of Subject”. Wall Street International. 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Arts, The Museum of Fine. “The Museum of Fine Arts”. MFAH. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ Evergreen Review video “Evergreen Review”. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-27., New York, 2011
• ^ “Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi”. upittpress.org. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “Faculty”.
• ^ Feran, Tim (February 9, 2015). “Longaberger president exits after 6 months”. Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
• ^ “August Sander e Michael Somoroff. Absence of Subject”. Stelline (in Italian). January 1, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ “Benaki Museum : VISIT / EXHIBITIONS”. Archived from the originalon 2015-08-12. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
• ^ Somoroff, Michael (September 13, 2015). “Absence of Subject”. Villa Vauban. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ “License a song from the album “Illumination” by Robert Rich”. ilicensemusic.com. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
• ^ “Somoroff, Michael – Artist, USA – in front of his wooden sculpture…”Getty Images. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Terranova, Amber (March 1, 2014). “The Subject of No Subject”. The New Yorker. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ Dyer, Geoff (2017-10-11). “The Photographer Who Saw America’s Monuments Hiding in Plain Sight”. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “Sander and Somoroff. Absence of Subject”. Wall Street International. 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Arts, The Museum of Fine. “The Museum of Fine Arts”. MFAH. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
• ^ “Somoroff, the vegetable series”. International Center of Photography. 2016-05-17. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ Evergreen Review video “Evergreen Review”. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-27., New York, 2011
• ^ “Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi”. upittpress.org. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
• ^ “Faculty”.