“Earlier this year, there were some high-profile twitterstorms, in which particular left-identifying figures were ‘called out’ and condemned. What these figures had said was sometimes objectionable; but nevertheless, the way in which they were personally vilified and hounded left a horrible residue: the stench of bad conscience and witch-hunting moralism” This […]
“it is strange for me to consider his efforts as Swedish and yet there is something to the examination of what can only be referred to as the National Camera, implicit in that sentiment are all of the complications of generalizations and archetypes. I am not trying to espouse something concrete, but rather […]
“The phrase “necessary fictions” both characterizes state-created realities, whether simulation in the military training context or the deployment and consumption of fictions in civilian society, and also comments on the documentary form.”
“For artists who do stage their work and find it in situ, the photographic sketchbook is virtually unnecessary as a pre-game facilitator. I would suggest though, that the photographic notebook is an indispensable tool after cheap prints have been made available” One technical tool that photographers often deprive themselves of thinking through is […]
“Killip was a human first and an observer or lucid chronicler second” Chris Killip is known for his immeasurable and singular vision of Britain during the 70’s 80’s and 90’s. To place emphasis on his work in a genre-fied manner would belittle his and its true humanity and potential. Killip was a human […]
“The way in which we write history is tinged with this conundrum. It suggests blinders in the very least and in doing so, should compel an understanding of context that is piecemeal or limited” It’s often difficult to unpack a particular body of work or historic book that has been republished without regarding […]
“One can use a camera to explore or utilise philosophy, politics, psychoanalysis and what not and this is wonderful as it broadens the scope of what is achievable with this tool. It tends to be forgotten that this is not, however, the be-all and end-all technique” When one thinks of photographic projects, which more […]
“I have assumed this focus on the found vernacular to be American in nature. However, the details of national ownership is missing apart from the rise of American modernism or the focus on its anti-thesis, namely quaint small town America advertising often hand painted and rough” It is somehow impossible not to mention […]
“Sunlight arms color photographs with daisies and when it refutes initiation, it instead lends pestilence to limbs that once lovingly embraced the nectar of its floral inhabitants” Color is a very sensitive pursuit. It curries favor with no artist. It has an understanding about it that exceeds what appears outright as a seasonal […]
“Are classifications necessary? What are there limits? Who can photograph who and what? “ I am always curious by what we consider the exotic in photographs. I often find myself thinking of the vestigial media forms of the past- all the inconsistencies, problematic discourses, and general selling of anything “other” in photographs, magazines and […]
“Engman himself is absent from the work, and his interest in the figure of his mother most often seems like the distant one of the artist: she is a familiar material, repeatedly made strange by his methods.”
“In the case of Arnaud Montagard’s The Road Not Taken, the lens is focused on the remnants of a mid-century American dream as exemplified by gas stations and diners that bear all the vernacular hallmarks of the Atomic Age” The best way to describe human activity in a photograph is to remove […]