Mike Disfarmer: Disfarmer Rediscovered

Disfarmer Rediscovered By Michael P. Mattis, from the book Disfarmer, The Vintage Prints The legend of Mike Disfarmer has intrigued the photographic community for nearly thirty years. The bizarre story of a hermit-like Arkansas studio photographer named Mike Meyer legally changing his name to Disfarmer in order to disassociate him- self not only from his […]

A Conversation with Camilo Jose Vergara

“America was supposed to be a country of big buildings, of ever-growing construction of roads, and stuff. And it is; and it is. But in addition to that, there is another America that has all of these things left behind.” Conversation with Ilan Stavans and Camilo Jose Vergara STAVANS: Camillo Jose Vergara, you are a […]

Everything is Sacred – An Interview with Bruce Davidson (2006)

“For me, everything is sacred, whether I’m photographing a human being or a statue or the good earth. It’s sacred, I absorb it. I want to absorb it.”   Interview with Bruce Davidson, The Kojo Nnamdi Show (WAMU/Chicago), November, 2006 Q: You’re on the streets of Chicago, wandering into Pentecostal churches, how did that initial […]

BILL OWENS: “American Fine Arts” (1994)

Fourth of July Block Party, 1970 from the series Suburbia Bill Owens – American Fine Arts, New York, New York, Originally published in ArtForum, December 1994 By Neville Wakefield Though conspicuously absent from public collections, Bill Owens’ photo-chronicles of middle America belong alongside those of the better known “social landscape” photographers of the ’60s and […]

MALICK SIDIBE: “PORTRAITS” (1960-1980)

  Born in 1935 in Soloba, Mali. Lives and works in Bamako. Malick Sidibe was born into a Peul family in a small village of Mali. He graduated from school in I952. After being noticed for his talent as a draftsman, he was admitted to the School of Sudanese Craftsmen in Bamako from which he […]

Dorothea Lange: “Portraits” (1935 – 1939)

  American photographer. From 1914 to 1917 she attended the New York Training School for Teachers and there decided to become a photographer, partly influenced by visits to the photographer Arnold Genthe. From 1917 to 1918 she attended a photography course run by Clarence H. White at Columbia University, NY. Lange moved to San Francisco […]

An Interview with Marion Post Wolcott (1965)

“I think that most people feel, or felt at that time, that it was a man’s field and that a man would just automatically do a better job and be better equipped to do it.”   By Richard Doud, Oral history interview with Marion Post Wolcott, January 18, 1965 RICHARD DOUD: This is an interview […]

Chris Killip & Graham Smith: “Another Country” (1985)

Helen and Hula-Hoop, Seacoal Beach, Lynemouth, Tyneside, UK, 1984 by Chris Killip   His affection for the land and its people never blinded him to the toughness of ordinary existence.   By Richard Cork, Review of Another Country at Serpentine Gallery, September 12, 1985 Excerpt from New Spirit, New Sculpture, New Money: Art in the […]

Roswell Angier on Larry Sultan ‘Pictures from Home’

Imagine the difficulty of undertaking a portrait project with your own parents as subjects, in which the exercise of critical awareness, and compassion alike, become part of the collaborative enterprise. Excerpt from “Train Your Gaze: A Practical and Theoretical Introduction to Portrait Photography” (2006) By Roswell Angier Imagine the difficulty of undertaking a portrait project […]

Interview with John Collier (1965)

Hispanic boy. Trampas, New Mexico. 1943 Interview with John Collier Conducted by Richard K. Doud at John Collier’s home in Sausalito, California. January 18, 1965 RICHARD DOUD: This is an interview with John Collier at his home on Muir Beach, Sausalito, California; January 18, 1965. The interviewer is Richard K. Doud. JOHN COLLIER: I got […]

An Interview with Walker Evans Pt. 1 (1971)

“I was damn well going to be an artist and I wasn’t going to be a businessman.”   Interview Excerpt from, Leslie Katz with Walker Evans, 1971. Leslie Katz: You took photographs of whatever interested you? Walker Evans: Oh yes. I was a passionate photographer, and for a while somewhat guiltily. I thought it was […]