Duane Michals on His Photograph of an Unknown Meryl Streep
AnOther Magazine | Fashion & Culture | AnOther [Unofficial]
June 11, 2026
This article was first published on 20 December 2017.
It’s hard to remember a moment when Meryl Streep wasn’t the most celebrated actress in the world. But when photographer Duane Michals shot her in 1975 in New York’s theatre district, she was entirely unknown, a recent graduate from Yale School of Drama who hadn’t yet made a film.
“The picture was taken before she was famous,” Michals remembers. “I had simply been told she was super talented and bighellip;
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