Category: photographers
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beijing blur
If Miroslav Tichý had visited Beijing in April 2012 this is what his cameras might have recorded. (last 2 photos here are Shanghai)
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L’il wallet picture
I recently re-read this brief text, which I wrote as an introduction to a set of essays on photography published by a small London-based press in a limited edition of 300 copies. It seems to me to say some useful things about the treachery of images—and, more generally, of any act of representation—which is why I thought it worthwhile…
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tina modotti + me
Photo at lower right is of Tina Modotti, by Edward Weston. In 1865, young Lewis Payne tried to assassinate Secretary of State W. H. Seward. Alexander Gardner photographed him in his cell, where he was waiting to be hanged. The photograph is handsome, as is the boy: that is the studium. But the punctum is:…
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encounters/annie ernaux
Notre vrai moi n’ est pas tout entier en nous. Jean-Jacques Rousseau These photographs were all shot at the exhibition “Exteriors: Annie Ernaux and Photography,” at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, February–May 2024, curated by Lou Stoppard. I love both Ernaux’ writing and the kind of street photography represented in the show, and…
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(post)colonial imaginaries: arabesques #2
These images are all from the exhibition “Présences arabes – Art moderne et décolonisation. Paris 1908-1988,” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris from April to August 2024. La Musée d’Art Moderne propose de redécouvrir la diversité des modernités arabes au 20ème siècle et de renouveler le regard historique sur des scènes artistiques encore peu…
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unexpected encounters #13: sun throat cut
The body will continue to demonstrate mortality as the fate of all humans. It is for this reason that any reference to human animality gravely affects those who dream of its antithesis. They take offence not only at any mention of animality in life, but in science, literature, and the arts as well, as this…
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unexpected encounters #7: aesthetics
Beauty will be convulsive, or it will not be. André Breton, Nadja Greece’s government has said the country is “turning a page” after Eurozone member states reached an agreement on the final elements of a plan to make its massive debt pile more manageable. The government spokesman, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, hailed “a historic decision” that meant “the Greek people…
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unexpected encounters #3—self-portraits with Cindy Sherman
Je est un autre. Arthur Rimbaud, letter to Georges Izambard, 13 May 1871 3.1 peeping tom. Berlin, March 15, 2016 The stills are dense with suspense and danger, and they all look as if they were directed by Hitchcock. The invariant subject is The Girl in Trouble, even if The Girl herself does not always know it. In Barbie-doll…
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rencontres #2 (off the wall)
These photographs were taken in the LUMA Arles Parc des Ateliers in September 2014. The Parc des Ateliers is a former railroad wasteland covering an area of 27 acres that was first operated by the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) company, which became the SNCF in 1938. The LUMA arts campus, which hosts exhibitions, performances, conferences and other…
Camera lucida 