Articles

Lebanese-American photographer Rania Matar draws inspiration from the strength, beauty, and resilience of the women she photographs, often seeing reflections of herself in her subjects. Her portrait work focuses on personal emotions and breaking stereotypes, reflecting her dual cultural identity and experiences as a mother. She values collaboration with her subjects, working closely with them to capture their true self and empower them through the process. Matar’s projects explore stages of life and female identity across different cultures, emphasizing shared humanity. Read Article

Today's Special is a photobook by Jeff Rothstein featuring black-and-white images of New York City taken over four decades from 1969 to 2006. The 62-page book contains 48 film photographs capturing everyday life, cityscapes of littered sidewalks, dilapidated buildings, and evolving skyscrapers. Rothstein, a Brooklyn-born photographer, documents a city that no longer exists, offering intimate and historically empathetic views. His work is recognized alongside notable photographers like Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. The book reflects a gritty yet timeless era, emphasizing the mood and texture brought out by black-and-white film photography. Read Article

The exhibition "Ferdinando Scianna: Journey Tale Memory" opened on March 22 at the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Reale in Milan. It presents over 200 black and white photographs spanning the entire career of Sicilian photographer Ferdinando Scianna, featuring a special section dedicated to his friend and writer Leonardo Sciascia. The display includes Scianna's early work on religious festivals in Sicily, his photojournalistic endeavors, portraits of cultural figures, and his ventures into fashion photography. The show offers an audio guide where Scianna shares personal stories and insights into his artistic journey. Read Article

Barbara Cole’s monograph Between Worlds showcases her three decades of exploration into the fluid aesthetics of water through photography. Using polaroid, film, and waterproof cameras, Cole captures underwater portraits that blur the lines between portraiture and underwater imagery. Her work emphasizes the poetic symbolism of water, femininity, and mythology, drawing connections to female gods and water-born legends like mermaids and Mazu. The photographs reveal a unique interplay between light, form, and water’s unpredictable nature, inviting a passive creative process that highlights water’s transformative qualities. Read Article

Barbara Cole's new photography book, Between Worlds, will be released on June 28, 2023, by teNeues. The book spans over 45 years of her artistic career, showcasing her evolving hybrid style that blends multiple photographic processes such as Polaroid, underwater photography, and the wet collodion process. Cole, a self-taught photographer, embraces experimentation and intuitive creation while rejecting straightforward realism and digital cleanliness. Between Worlds offers a nonlinear, layered experience that reveals the photographer’s commitment to making timeless images that reflect her continuous artistic exploration. Read Article

Richard Learoyd’s portrait series Presences showcases life-size, highly detailed prints created using the camera obscura combined with modern techniques like strobe lighting and Ilfochrome printing. His process involves arduous multi-hour sessions where models must sit still under hot lights. Learoyd produces unique positive prints with no negatives, deciding the final image during the exposure and destroying any rejected prints. The portraits explore the tension between intimacy and distance, challenging the viewer’s ability to truly know another person through the surface of a photograph. The series was exhibited at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco from May to June 2011. Read Article

David Katzenstein's Distant Journeys is a curated photobook featuring 120 duotone images taken between 1974 and 2023, drawn from his forty-nine-year career photographing thirty-seven countries. The images are accompanied by excerpts from Paul Bowles’s novel The Sheltering Sky, enhancing the narrative depth of the work. Katzenstein's photography is rooted in documentary and reportage traditions, aiming to immerse viewers in the intimate moments and cultures he experienced firsthand. The book reflects his deep respect for subjects and intention to make the audience feel present at the scenes he captured. Read Article

Loli Kantor’s photobook Call Me Lola is a poignant exploration of loss and memory, focusing on the search for her mother, who died shortly after Kantor's birth. Blending photography, memoir, and archival investigation, the book interlaces historic documents, family photographs, and contemporary images taken across Europe and Israel. The volume not only highlights the traces left by her mother but also reflects on absence through nuanced visual strategies. Augmented by an essay and an interview, it presents a deeply personal and haunting journey into identity and remembrance connected to Holocaust history. Read Article

French photographer Thomas Jorion uses an analog 4×5 camera to capture the lasting beauty of abandoned palaces and villas, primarily in Italy. His large format photographs highlight the decay and grandeur of these forgotten structures, presenting them with careful composition and detail often reserved for more lively subjects. Jorion’s solo exhibition Veduta at Esther Woerdehoff Galerie in Paris showcases this evocative exploration of time and nature reclaiming man-made spaces, open through April 6, 2019. His work emphasizes the poetic intersection of memory, decay, and beauty in derelict architecture. Read Article

The exhibition Candida Höfer: Liechtenstein was held at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein from September 30, 2022, to April 10, 2023. It featured large format photographs taken by Candida Höfer in Liechtenstein during 2021, showcasing interior and exterior views of museums, libraries, and storerooms. Known for her objective and detailed visual style, Höfer’s work uses natural lighting without artificial spotlights, resulting in carefully planned, long-exposure images. The exhibition was the first to span all four top-lit rooms of the Kunstmuseum and the Hilti Art Foundation's three exhibition spaces, juxtaposing Höfer's photographs with artworks from classical modernism to contemporary art for a dialogue between genres. Read Article

Wynn Bullock was a prominent mid-20th century photographer known for his experimental, abstract, and philosophical approach to photography. His career included early recognition in 1941 and notable exhibitions worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book 'Wynn Bullock: Revelations' accompanies a traveling exhibition and offers a comprehensive overview of his work, presenting 110 images across his evolving styles from the 1940s to the 1970s. It also includes an essay, chronology, bibliography, and exhibition history. Read Article

The article explores the pervasive system of racial segregation under Jim Crow laws in the American South, illustrating how legal decisions and local ordinances enforced “separate but equal” spaces. It details how African Americans faced segregation in transportation, public facilities, housing, and daily activities through signs, laws, and architectural designs that maintained racial separation and reinforced institutional racism. Personal accounts highlight the social realities of navigating these spaces, emphasizing the dangers and restrictions imposed on African Americans. The narrative also connects the rise of such segregation with urban growth and the eventual civil rights challenges sparked by figures like Rosa Parks. Read Article