Michael Alan Kaskel is recognized for his dramatic black-and-white portrayals of human landscapes and his captivating, unconventional still lifes featuring human skulls.

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From an early age, Kaskel knew he wanted to become an interior design photographer, working for designers and magazines. However, his dreams were met with resistance from his parents, who questioned the practicality of photography as a career. They insisted he pursue a B.S. in business instead. Despite this, Kaskel’s unwavering determination to carve out a place for himself in the competitive world of interior design photography ultimately paid off. Over the course of forty years, his distinctive sense of styling and photography earned him a reputation and a loyal national client base, with dozens of interior design magazine covers and hundreds of pages of both magazine and book photo spreads.

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Now, Kaskel feels it's the right time to turn his focus toward his own personal vision, moving in a more fine arts direction. He is embracing a fine arts approach, focusing on capturing the intersection of people and landscapes while exploring the macabre with a touch of humor. With more time to travel and experiment, Kaskel has found himself drawn to the beauty of black-and-white imagery, an aesthetic he couldn’t incorporate into his commercial work. A key element of his new artistic focus is a human skull that was passed down to him by his father, a biology professor who obtained it 50 years ago for educational purposes.

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Kaskel’s work has been featured in several group exhibitions across the country, including the Laguna Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA (2025), KBM Art Gallery in Hollywood, CA (2025), Van Der Plas Gallery in New York, NY (2022), and Perspective Art Gallery in Evanston, IL (2020).