Michael Woods took influence from American photographers, Walker Evans, mostly for his purity of vision, and Man Ray. Human relationships played a central role to his professional working life, which is why portraiture attracted him so much.

The present photograph is of Michael Clark (born 1 April 1954) who is a contemporary British artist. His work spans a broad range of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, photography, installation, video, performance and artist's books. In 1977 Clark met Muriel Belcher and Francis Bacon in The Colony Room club in Soho.[1] Clark's portrait of Belcher on her deathbed (Muriel Belcher Ill in bed) was part of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1981, and won the Charles Wollaston Award. At the suggestion of Valerie Beston, of Marlborough Fine Art, Clark made the first of a series of portraits of Bacon, one of which is in the British Museum's collection. "Michael Clark's portraits of Bacon emphasise the sad preoccupation of his sagging face, with eyes deep in concussed hollows grimly contemplating mortality".[2]