I am previously familiar with Berlin-based Chinese artist Cai Dongdong through his interest in re-purposing vernacular photography. A Game of Photos and Left Right, his previous two books present a playful atmosphere of interrogating the past, playing with the physical artifacts of the photographic medium. In some ways, with A Game of Photos, one is […]
I missed this book first time around. The first edition sold out fairly quickly and has been republished in an affordable second edition by the original publisher Witty Kiwi. I will be honest in admitting that I am following contemporary photography from China at a distance. My knowledge of it is relative to Ren Hang, […]
The emphasis on performance or performing photography seems like a never-ending discussion. I have been looking backwards through the history of photography and can see without much difficulty that its Western beginnings are full of images that exemplify the tradition such as Hippolyte Bayard’s Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man from 1840 forward through […]
We confuse ourselves with our recognition of our portrait in a mirror. The hand that brushes away the hairs from the forehead, the sweet sticky perspiration that pins the lock to the crown is read in reverse and yet, this reversal is apathetic to the self that it stares back at. The eyes glare […]
“…the word ‘image’ embodies a number of distinct phenomena. On an existential level, it articulates the impression we project onto others and ourselves—self image, body image, public image. But in a traditional art historical context, it alludes to the visual representation of someone or something in a work of art”. by Cat Lachowskyj […]