In 2003, the Palm Springs Desert Museum presented a forty-year retrospective of Michael’s work, Icons and Legends. In 2006, La Dolce Vita: The Photography of Michael Childers, was exhibited at the Los Angeles Film Festival; the Palm Springs Art Museum presented Celebration of Three Hollywood Photographers: George Hurrell, Sid Avery, in 2007, Rockin’ Hollywood at the Queen Mary Gallery, Long Beach featured portraits of rock-and-roll icons and music legends. Author Author, featuring Childers’ images of celebrated authors, playwrights, poets and screenwriters, was exhibited in a dozen major U.S. libraries, including the Beinecke Library Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University and the Monroe C. Gutman Library at Harvard University in 2019.  

Michael’s photos are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery; Victoria & Albert Museum, British Film Institute Library in London, Palm Springs Art Museum, The University of Texas at Austin - Harry Ransom Center, UC Riverside Photography Museum, Laguna Art Museum, The Andy Warhol Museum; Pittsburgh, Marion Center for the Photographic Arts; Santa Fe, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences; Beverly Hills,  Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; San Luis Obispo, Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum, Scripps College Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Marquette University Art Gallery; Milwaukee; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Yale University Beinecke Library; Yale Center of British Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Cal State Fullerton Art Gallery, The Getty Museum; Los Angeles.