Articles

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

The exhibition 'Gordon Parks' at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, showcases groundbreaking photographs taken by Gordon Parks in Fort Scott, Kansas, during the 1940s. The images capture the realities of life under segregation. Parks, the first African American full-time photographer at LIFE magazine, returned to his hometown in 1950 to document the everyday lives of African American citizens around the time before the Civil Rights movement. His photo essay titled “Back to Fort Scott” was never published but offers a rare and visually rich perspective on segregation-era America. Read Article

In 1950, Gordon Parks, the only African-American photographer working for Life magazine, returned to his segregated hometown school in Fort Scott, Kansas, to photograph his classmates and document segregation. Despite the significance of the project, Life never published the photos or Parks’ accompanying text, leaving these powerful images hidden for more than 60 years. An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will finally showcase these never-before-seen photos, providing a poignant look at racial segregation and African-American life before the civil rights movement. Read Article

Dwight Garner’s New York Times review calls Julia Van Haaften’s biography, Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography, a "vital work of American cultural history" that chronicles the artist’s evolution from bohemian sculptor to pioneering modernist. The biography highlights Abbott's independent spirit and her work in documenting New York City's architectural shifts, though the review notes the narrative occasionally becomes bogged down in excessive detail. Read Article

Jim Grey reflects on improving his documentary photography by studying Berenice Abbott's work, particularly her 1930s photographs of New York City taken during the Great Depression under the Works Progress Administration. Abbott's images demonstrate how context, contrasting elements, and angled compositions can convey a strong sense of place and environment. Grey highlights specific techniques such as backing up to include surrounding context, framing multiple planes, and seeing through objects to create more engaging and informative photographs. He aims to apply these lessons to better capture the essence of the places he visits. Read Article