REVIEWS

Laura Bielau Arbeit 2016-2019

  Laura Bielau’s Arbeit 2016-2019 (Spector Books, 2021) is a stripped-back and minimal series of investigations that regards the environmental working effects and detritus of art labor in 2021. Though the aims are not overtly class-oriented or political, they function as a personal case study between the artist and the alien consumer objects that become […]

Mari Katayama Synthesis

There is a small number of essential photobooks that explore the concept of artistic process/practice and performance. Most recently, I have found myself thumbing through Joseph Beuys: Coyote, by Caroline Tisdall (Schirmer/Mosel, 1976), which features photographs of Beuys’ legendary 1974 performance, I Like America and America Likes Me. The performance, arguably Beuys’ most well-known, next to How to […]

Yana Kononova Radiations of War

  I do not know much about the war in Ukraine, despite living in a country that borders it. I don’t know much about it as the fog of war hangs heavily, like a thick, void-like curtain over the whole mess. The principal idea is clear. Russia has invaded its neighbor and, in doing so, […]

Pedro Alfacinha 1985

    Full Article on Patreon   Returning to the idea of memories, one can feel all of these tendencies in the work used to enforce a slippage of time. Close-up images and somewhat obscure faces place the photographs inside a dream factory or memory farm. These fragments of realism play heavily with our ability […]

Yasuhiro Ishimoto – Lines and Bodies

  The gift of Japanese photography is that it feels like a never-ending field of exploration. It is a wide field of study, and if one invests in the material created in Japan from around 1958 forward, the returns are plentiful. Having put off embracing the canon of Japanese photography for most of my career […]

Carmen Winant The Last Safe Abortion

  Access to medical attention should be a right, no matter religious qualification or moralizing over another adult person’s decision. In the case of abortion, this is complicated by how we judge human sentience in the form of an unborn child. It is complicated. To say otherwise would be a misstep that does not account […]

Pas de Culte Roman Kienjet & Willem Van Zoetendaal

Growing up in the 90s, transgression in art, as far as I understood, stemmed from the oppressive neoliberalist tendencies carried over from the 80s. Degrees of Thatcherism and Reaganism haunted the landscape of artistry, alongside many questions arising from social issues concerning the body. Gay rights and the grappling of feminism, and more essentially, its […]

Christopher Anderson: Manic Compression, High Definition Society

“Cameras are now so advanced that the way we look at our image is now under the threat of becoming unrecognizable with its intense dedication to the state of high definition-pores counted, we recognize a hyper version of our once-future self absconded just far enough to promote simulation and techno-progress, but still close enough to give us doubt about our reflection.”

Daphne Kotsiani These Earthly Shores

There is a penchant, over the past ten to fifteen years or so, for photographic image-making to re-examine landscapes as scratchy abstractions, almost imperceptibly detailed beyond the reach of their granular vistas. This is most evident in the work of Korean/American artist Jungjin Lee, whose series of books and bodies of work detail the shift […]

Isak Uitto Maskineri

Throughout the 1990s, there was a distinct emphasis on the body and its decline. Work produced during the 90s, whether from the aids crisis or the ideological shift away from the Catholic church toward an atheistic and bodily autonomy, signaled a visceral approach to photography. The documentary Vile Bodies (1999), produced by Chris Townsend and […]

Debsuddha Crossroads

Othering, debated through the discourse of reading the camera as a difference machine, seems at the crux of much of photography’s woes. Challenged by the notion that the machine is neutral in its observational and technical ability, the authorship and cultural means of producing images are undergoing a fruitful re-assessment of its terms to represent, […]

Rodrigo Valenzuela – New Works For a Post-Workers World

Rodrigo Valenzuela has been producing incredible work for the past couple of years. I was lucky enough to get a copy of his last book, Journeyman, published by Mousse Publishing. It was my introduction to the Chilean-American’s work, and from that point, we managed to have an extensive conversation about his work for Nearest Truth. […]

Colin Pantall – All is Seen on the Homefront

“Photography is many terrible things, but one thing it is great for is fascination. It harnesses the possibility for playing out in a different way giving the child a look into adult possibility, while also reminding the adult what it was like to look at the world with young and/or un-jaded eyes.”

Tommaso Protti – Terra Vermelha

    I had to take a bit of time to digest this book. I remember receiving it before the end of the year and being genuinely overwhelmed with it for a few different reasons that I will outline here. I think the feeling of being overwhelmed first stemmed from the photographs being of an […]

Guillaume Simoneau: All Lies Beneath A Placid Surface

“Simoneau and his use of the plastic documentary, those metaphorical images that punctuate his book in their sublime manifestations of beautifully drawn and dark passages of smoke rolling across the tree line and the sickly arachnid all but giving up on the stalk of a flowering plant of unknown taxonomy lend to the feel of […]

Thomas Ruff – “photograms and ma.r.s.” (2013)

Almost always working in series, Ruff frequently develops new technologies to facilitate concepts that are at the edge of visual and technical vanguards.   By Vladimir Gintoff, ASX, April 2013 The German photographer Thomas Ruff is the anomalous schoolchild of the Dusseldorf Art Academy and Bernd and Hilla Becher’s tutelage. Breaking and reinventing the rules […]

Stephen Gill’s “Best Before End” at FOAM (2013)

  Talking to Ants 2 © Stephen Gill courtesy of the artist Fanny Landstrom reviews Stephen Gill’s exhibition, Best Before End, at the Foam Museum, Amsterdam (17th May – 14th July, 2013) for ASX, May 2013  “Stephen Gill has learnt this: to haunt the places that haunt him. His photo-accumulations demonstrate a tender vision factored out of […]

Gerry Johansson – “Deutschland” (2013)

Kommingen, 2007 Gerry Johansson “Deutschland” at Swedish Photography, 2013 By Sören Schuhmacher, ASX Germany, April 2013 In 1993 and 2005 to 2012 Gerry Johansson drove through the German countryside, visiting 176 places like Alt Horsbüll, Gelsenkirchen or Solingen. He divided Germany into nine sectors, which he then traveled systematically. Rather than visiting only major cities, […]

Christer Strömholm at C/O Berlin (2013)

By Sören Schuhmacher, ASX Berlin, March 2013 For the first time in Germany, C/O Berlin presents a retrospective of the Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm (1918-2002). Christer Strömholm . Post Scriptum, is at the same time the last exhibition hosted in the unique spaces of the Postfuhramt. Roughly 150 vintage black and white prints are presented […]

Matthias Bruggman’s “UNDERCOVER, THEATRE D’OPERATIONS” (2013)

His photographs do not look like those published in magazines and newspapers. They freely mix landscape, portraits, motion, violence, quiescence, and death, and their aim is not journalistic in the sense that they do not as a project tell a single story.   Paris Exhibition Review : Matthias Bruggman’s “Undercover, théâtre d’opérations” at Maison d’arts […]

Ezra Stoller “Beyond Architecture” at Yossi Milo” (2013)

Manufacturer’s Trust Company, Fifth Avenue, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, New York, NY, 1954   “Beyond Architecture” at Yossi Milo. By Raphael Shammaa, ASX NYC, February 2013 The Ezra Stoller exhibit “Beyond Architecture” at the Yossi Milo Gallery has the power to make one fall in love with architectural photography, and with The United States. These […]

“GAIETY IS THE MOST OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF THE SOVIET UNION: ‘Art from Russia’ at the Saatchi Gallery (2013)

   Sergei Vasiliev Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia Print No.12 2010 Giclée print 165 x 112 cm ©Sergei Vasiliev, 2010 Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London By Laetitia Martinez & David Price, ASX UK, March 2013 Walking through affluent Sloane Square into the stately building that houses the Saatchi Gallery, directly into the opening salvo of […]

Trevor Paglen at Metro Pictures (2013)

The Last Pictures Image 9: Migrants Seen by Predator Drone, U.S.-Mexico Border. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures. Trevor Paglen  at Metro Pictures February 7 – March 9 2013 By Vladimir Gintoff, ASX NYC, February 2013 Trevor Paglen has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a PhD in geography from […]

Juergen Teller – “Woo!” at ICA (2013)

“It is overwhelming realizing just how extremely influential Teller has been for fashion photography of today when seeing the seemingly endless amount of raw, rough, and ready skinny naked girls looking at you in a confront fierce manner.” Juergen Teller, ‘Woo!’, 23 January 2013 – 17 March 2013, at ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. […]

Roe Ethridge at Capitain Petzel – “Sacrifice Your Body” (2014)

“Untitled (Alexis Bittar)“, 2013 © the artist, Courtesy Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York & Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Roe Ethridge, Sacrifice Your Body, at Capitain Petzel, Berlin, Feb 1-March 8, 2014. By Fanny Landstrom, for ASX, March 2014 Located amongst the monumental GDR architecture on Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin’s district of Mitte is the East German modernist […]

Alec Soth’s ‘Songbook’ at Sean Kelly Gallery

Near Kaaterskill Falls, 2012 © Alec Soth, Courtesy: Sean Kelly, New York “One of the biggest statements in Songbook is Soth’s decision to work solely in black and white. The pictures evoke old press photography: large format, black and white, with a strong flash.” By Shahrzad Kamel, February 2015 Following the critical acclaim for Alec Soth’s […]

“What is a Photograph” @ ICP (2014)

Mariah Robertson, 154 [detail], 2010. © Mariah Robertson, courtesy American Contemporary, New York. THE DREAM OF THE FUTURE By Shahrzad Kamel, ASX, NYC 2014 Recently, I’ve been fascinated with a book I found at the New York Public Library. A Dictionary of Photography, printed in 1867, is something of a relic. Complete with heavy-serif typeface, illustrations of […]

W. Eugene Smith – More Real than Reality (2011)

W. Eugene Smith – More Real than Reality By Silke van de Grift for ASX Until March 16th the Photography Museum of Amsterdam (FOAM) presents a retrospective of W. Eugene Smith (US, 1918-1978). The exhibition features six series of photographs, including The Country Doctor (1948), acclaimed as photojournalism’s first official photo-essay. The other series shown […]

Thomas Struth at Marian Goodman Gallery (2014)

Mountain, Anaheim, California, 2013 courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery Thomas Struth at Marian Goodman By Lauren Weinberg for ASX, February 2014 “How should we judge what we see?” It’s a question posed to dramatic effect by a series of mostly large-scale photographs created by the iconic 59 year-old German photographer Thomas Struth, now on view […]

Alberto García-Alix – “Self-portrait” (2013)

Un instant de silenci etern, 2010 Self-portrait, a unique exhibition dedicated entirely to García-Alix By Cristina Izquierdo Sastre, ASX Barcelona, March 2013 “A way of seeing is a way of being”, says  in the video From Where There is no return. And this is exactly what this exhibition is about. Through his camera, García-Alix (León, […]

Louis Stettner – “Louis Stettner” at Bonni Benrubi (2013)

Elbowing, Out of Town Newstand, New York, 1954 Louis Stettner at Bonni Benrubi. The Fuller Building, 41 E 57 St, NYC By Lew Schwartz, ASX NYC, March 2013 [column width=”45%” padding_right=”20px”]The first image you see in this small show, Out of Town, Newsstand, is of a neatly tailored woman, perhaps a model, looking down into […]

REVIEW: William Eggleston – “At Zenith” (2013)

At Zenith I (from Wedgwood Blue), 1979/2013 © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery In the sleek and immaculate setting of the Gagosian Gallery, my childhood and adulthood escapes unexpectedly met each other. REVIEW: WILLIAM EGGLESTON – “AT ZENITH”- GAGOSIAN GALLERY MADISON AVENUE OCT 26- DEC 21 2013 BY: Shahrzad Kamel, NYC DEC 2013 When I was […]

Jitka Hanzlová – “Retrospective” (2013)

  By Benjamin Tree, ASX UK, February 2013 Jitka Hanzlová’s first retrospective exhibition in Britain unifies eight of Hanzlová’s photographic projects via an understanding of their common concerns: that is, what place means to the individual. The exhibit begins with Rokytník, a photo-series which documents the village inhabitants of Hanzlová’s familial homeland, a place she […]

Asger Carlsen – ‘Hester’ (2012)

   “I am tired of photography.” – Asger Carlsen   By Paul Loomis, ASX, February 2013 Asger Carlsen’s new book, Hester, features twenty-one impossible photographs.  Their subjects are almost humorously mangled yet unbloodied human bodies.  The first image is a pile of plump flesh with stretch marks, mounded in globs atop a bipod consisting of […]

Louis Stettner – “Louis Stettner” at Bonni Benrubi (2013)

Elbowing, Out of Town Newstand, New York, 1954 Louis Stettner at Bonni Benrubi. The Fuller Building, 41 E 57 St, NYC By Lew Schwartz, ASX NYC, March 2013 [column width=”45%” padding_right=”20px”]The first image you see in this small show, Out of Town, Newsstand, is of a neatly tailored woman, perhaps a model, looking down into […]

Todd Hido: “Ohio” (2009)

From Ohio, 2009  By Doug Rickard The clouds are passing by gently… the pale blue sky smiles because it is summer again and the sun beams its warm rays down into your suburban backyard in the Midwest. You’re standing there looking at the white house next door and the curtains are closed. The dry weeds sting […]

Roman Vishniac – ‘Rediscovered’ at ICP (2013)

 People behind bars, Berlin Zoo, ca. 1930-1935 © Mara Vishniac Kohn. Courtesy International Center of Photography. By Lew Schwartz, ASX NYC, February 2013 Kudos all around. “Rediscovered” in the exhibition’s title is somewhat misleading because the Vishniac whom we encounter here is an entirely new construction for most of the photo viewing public. The story of how […]

EAMONN DOYLE: “i” (2014)

Here the street is the background upon which single figures stand. (Or rather, lean). The streets become backdrop, grey slate with stripes and arrows, designs on the pavement. Doyle is more of a stalker than a flaneur.   Eamonn Doyle i, Review by Ellen Wallenstein for ASX, June 2014 Eamonn Doyle’s book i is a […]

“GAIETY IS THE MOST OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF THE SOVIET UNION: ‘Art from Russia’ at the Saatchi Gallery (2013)

   Sergei Vasiliev Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia Print No.12 2010 Giclée print 165 x 112 cm ©Sergei Vasiliev, 2010 Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London By Laetitia Martinez & David Price, ASX UK, March 2013 Walking through affluent Sloane Square into the stately building that houses the Saatchi Gallery, directly into the opening salvo of […]

Joshua Lutz – “Hesitating Beauty” (2012)

The Coming Insurrection, 2010 Hesitating Beauty; Joshua Lutz toys with our heads and hearts. By Raphael Shammaa, ASX NYC, March 2013 A head shot of a young woman in a stylish cocktail dress, eyelids interrupted in mid flutter and lips in mid speech, a strand of pearls adorning her delicate, vulnerable neck composes this book’s […]

America’s Most Prominent Locus of Stupidity (Florida) – Paul Kwiatkowski ‘And Every Day Was Overcast’ (2013)

 The recent past has seen the amplification of Florida as America’s most prominent locus of ignominy.   And Every Day Was Overcast By Owen Campbell, ASX, November 2013 The recent past has seen the amplification of Florida as America’s most prominent locus of ignominy. Florida’s lavish multitude of embarrassments are mostly trivial and comic, yet […]

Jitka Hanzlová – “Retrospective” (2013)

  By Benjamin Tree, ASX UK, February 2013 Jitka Hanzlová’s first retrospective exhibition in Britain unifies eight of Hanzlová’s photographic projects via an understanding of their common concerns: that is, what place means to the individual. The exhibit begins with Rokytník, a photo-series which documents the village inhabitants of Hanzlová’s familial homeland, a place she […]

Wolfgang Tillmans “Neue Welt (New World)” (2012)

There is a very careful eye at work in these pages, and the photographs mesh even though they shouldn’t.   Imagined, Imaged, Believed, or Dreamed By Paul Loomis, ASX, January 2012 Wolfgang Tillmans’ Neue Welt (New World) is littered with diverse images that are fearlessly juxtaposed. On the surface they seem to examine and reveal […]

“What is a Photograph” @ ICP (2014)

Mariah Robertson, 154 [detail], 2010. © Mariah Robertson, courtesy American Contemporary, New York. THE DREAM OF THE FUTURE By Shahrzad Kamel, ASX, NYC 2014 Recently, I’ve been fascinated with a book I found at the New York Public Library. A Dictionary of Photography, printed in 1867, is something of a relic. Complete with heavy-serif typeface, illustrations of […]

Joan Fontcuberta – “The Photography of Nature / The Nature of Photography” (2014)

from Sputnik, 1997 @ Joan Fontcuberta By Charlie Tatum, for ASX, March 2014 Though Catalan photographer Joan Fontcuberta (b. 1955, Barcelona) is far from a household name, his receipt of the 2013 Hasselblad Award seems more than fitting. Following the success of Massimiliano Gioni’s Encylopedic Palace, Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos, and a resurgence of interest […]

Petite and Magical, Luigi Ghirri’s: ‘Kodachrome’

For Ghirri, the world was a labyrinth and making pictures was a means of “tell[ing] the real identity of man, of things, of life, from the image of man, of things of life.”   By Vladimir Gintoff, ASX NYC, March 2013 In 1935 Eastman Kodak introduced Kodachrome. A film stock praised for its idiosyncratic, hyper-saturated, […]

Sophie Calle – “Rachel, Monique'” (2012)

By Allie Haeusslein, Associate Director at Pier 24 Photography, ASX February 2013 Given her proclivity for documenting and sharing the most intimate of moments – both her own and those of others – it is hardly surprising that Sophie Calle ultimately turned this probing eye on her mother. Rachel, Monique is an exquisite object; referring […]

Christer Strömholm – ‘Post Scriptum’ (2012)

Carla & Zizou, Brasserie Graff, 1963   Many of his photographs were taken in Paris, and anticipate the work of more contemporary photographers like Nan Goldin in that they are documents from Strömholm’s eclectic and vigorous life.   By Paul Loomis, ASX, January 2013 This volume compiles photographs from several extremely hard to find books […]

Co-ordination and Re-assignment in the Dissonant Steel Fish Tank

@ Giuseppe Micciché   Co-ordination and Re-assignment in the Dissonant Steel Fish Tank   By Brad Feuerhelm, ASX, December 2014 Cento passi is a affectionate, yet somnambulant and lightly traumatic study of photographer Giuseppe Micciché’s father’s decline into Alzheimer’s disease between 2011/2012. The book is an effective mediation on the oscillating and often times confusing […]

Stephen Gill’s “Best Before End” at FOAM (2013)

  Talking to Ants 2 © Stephen Gill courtesy of the artist Fanny Landstrom reviews Stephen Gill’s exhibition, Best Before End, at the Foam Museum, Amsterdam (17th May – 14th July, 2013) for ASX, May 2013  “Stephen Gill has learnt this: to haunt the places that haunt him. His photo-accumulations demonstrate a tender vision factored out of […]

Juergen Teller – “Woo!” at ICA (2013)

“It is overwhelming realizing just how extremely influential Teller has been for fashion photography of today when seeing the seemingly endless amount of raw, rough, and ready skinny naked girls looking at you in a confront fierce manner.” Juergen Teller, ‘Woo!’, 23 January 2013 – 17 March 2013, at ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. […]