Michael Van Huffel

I am a photographer living in Santa Cruz.

I started out creatively with with the artist Prince, working as a designer and art director at Paisley Park. After, I continued a career as a designer, animator and creative director, working in advertising and later in Hollywood, designing/animating movie titles and trailers.

In 2008, I became ill with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a mysterious & debilitating chronic illness. I became largely confined my home in ongoing treatment, unable to do things I once did.



Needing a creative outlet and way to feel productive, I began a photo-a-day project with a friend in Argentina (now my wife, Saatchi Artist Maria Belen Irusta). I intend my images to be studies of small things that wouldn’t normally be noticed, flowers, liquids, simple chemical reactions that I experiment with for shoots. I’m trying to create images that have a painted quality, or abstracts, showing small things and their moments from a different perspective.

Berklee College of Music

I have not had any photographic exhibitions.

Though, my work appears in 3 Gold Record winning album and many other releases by Prince. In my prior career, film titles I designed and animated were seen around the world.

Merck Pharmaceutical commissioned me to create a number of photographic installations for their Research Labs.