I think of Massimiliano Tommaso Rezza’s process as being a dislocated type of photographic practice. His work functions on the viewer being able to unlock parts of his cryptic use of images, but never all. One is asked to recognize inherent photographic themes and usages, but it is very difficult to place an exacting context […]
Eiko Grimberg is concerned with two pivotal subject matters within his work. The first is the way in which we interpret the historical. The second is the way in which we interpret architecture. In his work, these two aspects overlap and produce an air of uncertainty in which dogmatic and ideological thinking is critiqued […]
What looks benign or without consequence can be illusory. What lies below the surface can provide a catalog of answers. The distant past as a concept is very hard to photograph. In thicket and open clearing, in water and desert, it is difficult to unlock the image of ancient history. We can only […]
Eiji Ohashi’s Roadside Lights Seasons: Winter is deceptively simple in its approach. The main theme of the book considers a constant in the Japanese landscape through the repeated photographic investigation of its roadside vending machines. Though beautifully photographed, the book details one type of subject matter across the beautiful backdrop of Japan at night. It […]
The term family is a loaded concept. It suggests something intimate and forged of a bond that is hard to break though it can be called into question. It never feels like a neutral term. From its earliest days, photography has made use of subjects closest to the operator. Photographing children, partners and parents is […]
I don’t know if I believe that photography can define a people or a nation adequately, so I surmise that its best course of action is to speak about these topics in metaphor as if an attempt at truth will not be tolerated by observers from a secondhand accounting. It seems as though a majority […]
Next of Kin is everything I want to see in a photobook. It has the raw energy of sub-culture aesthetics coupled with a formal set of skills that exhibits the artist’s obviously studied qualities. It suggests that you can keep the energy of your life in your work and still know how to […]
Manifest destiny is an American concept that has been used to propel the country forward to this day. In the Nineteenth Century, the term was used as a way to justify westward expansion and the legitimacy of both slavery and genocide. If God willed that man travel West spreading word, religion and culture, then how […]
Stephan Keppel’s work appears as enigmatic on the surface. This is the first key to consider when trying to decipher it. Surface is the primary motif for the images within his books. After that, there are many levels to try to unlock. In some senses, it’s the kind of work that I might normally be […]
I was convinced that before writing this that I would have a few examples of books about hunting in my mind when I began to type, but I am drawing a blank. I can think of a few things like Les Krims The Deerslayers, I can imagine or conjure up some images of hunting in […]
The history of the Doppelgänger-the German word for a look-alike is long and has its roots in a form of teratology or study of medical abnormalities both in human and animal form. These abnormalities can be seen as an example in conjoined or “Siamese” twins. Further to the conjoined version of twinning is […]
“Berlin’s character is not in its facade, but rather its margins” Berlin’s legacy of the wall and the legacy of the war mark its facade and its imperial history like a pock-marked child whose scars were never allowed to heal due to the constant re-opening of their scabrous surface. Berlin is a […]