Articles

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 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

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 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

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

New York in the Thirties, published by Dover Publications in 1973, is an unabridged reprint of Berenice Abbott’s 1939 classic Changing New York. Featuring 97 photographs, the book documents the architectural and social transformation of New York City during the Great Depression. Abbott used a large-format view camera to capture the contrast between old low-rise buildings and modern skyscrapers, employing a sharp, realistic photographic style called straight photography. The volume offers valuable historical context through captions by Elizabeth McCausland and serves as an important record of a rapidly changing cityscape. Read Article

Margaret Bourke-White was a pioneering American photographer born in 1904. She studied science and art before becoming an influential industrial photographer in the late 1920s. Bourke-White worked for major magazines like Fortune and LIFE, covering significant global events including World War II, the partition of India and Pakistan, and the Korean War. She broke many barriers as the first female staff photographer at LIFE, the first woman to photograph Soviet industry, and the first to work in combat zones during WWII. Her impactful images span decades and continue to be widely recognized. Read Article

Germaine Krull, a pioneering photographer of the early 20th century, gained prominence in 1928 Paris for her avant-garde photographs featured in the magazine VU. Known for her modernist style, Krull captured city life, industrial structures, and intimate images of female couples, challenging conventional representation of gender and queer desire. Her photo book Métal (1928) highlighted industrial Europe, while her earlier portfolio Les amies depicted tender moments between women, reflecting her own queer experiences. Krull’s work defied norms by portraying queer female sexuality openly during a time of widespread invisibility and anxiety about lesbian identity. Read Article

Germaine Krull was a pioneering modernist photographer whose work was championed by Man Ray but has since been largely overlooked. Born in 1897, Krull traveled extensively and developed a unique photographic style that ranged from nudes to urban landscapes. She was an innovator in photographic books and utilized experimental techniques such as multiple exposures and unusual perspectives. A recent exhibition at Jeu de Paume in Paris showcases over 130 of her prints, including rare early works and images from her travels in Southeast Asia. This exhibition highlights her lasting impact on 20th-century photography. Read Article