David Goldblatt – Afrikaners Photographed and Revisited (1975-2006)

“The ideology and apparatus of apartheid and the overwhelming power of the state to crush opposition became ever more present in our lives.”   Some Afrikaners Photographed, 1975 – Some Afrikaners Revisited, 2006 By David Goldblatt, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2006 I was born and grew up in Randfontein, a gold-mining town 40 kilometres west of […]

Walker Evans’s ‘Counter-Aesthetic’ (2003)

Gay Burke, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, October 28, 1973   As a collection, the Polaroids are remarkable in their consistent and determined attitude. They are bald presentations of individuals without mannerism or style and yet they are distinct, they are compelling, and their directness is palpable.   By Jane Tormey, originally published in Afterimage, July 1, 2003 During […]

Shelby Lee Adams – ‘The Napier’s Living Room’ (1989)

Getting out of the truck, this place felt like being taken back in time.   By Shelby Lee Adams, 2007 In the early ’80’s I was taken to visit the Napier family by a local preacher and friend Wayne Riddle from Leatherwood. I was advised not to drive my car, as the roads were rough. […]

Bill Owens – ‘Leisure’ – A Particular Kind of Strangeness (2005)

From the Working series By Gregory Crewdson A family of three carefully unfolds rolls of sod onto their barren front yard transforming it into a small domestic oasis. A man ascends a bare, undersized tree in an absurd attempt to prune its dead leaves. A young boy sits on his Big Wheel holding a toy […]

Jacob Holdt: My Travels with a Nomad

  Wealth can make people insensitive. I’ve always promised myself I would never let that happen to me.   By Anita Roddick Last year I crossed the great divide, traveling through rural areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia for my first look at extreme poverty in America. To be poor anywhere is always hard, […]