Let me start with a confession. When I first came across Juliana Beasley’s work, I wasn’t very impressed. The photographs I first encountered were from her first book, Lapdancer, which is usually described as a gritty photographic journey into the underbelly of strip clubs. My … Keep readingJuliana Beasley
NUDES NUDES NUDES It’s got to be one of the most common visual tropes used by photography students in art schools: the attractive, thin, young woman posing nude in a rundown, dilapidated setting. An abandoned house, a derelict factory, a decaying former institutional structure such … Keep readingMiru Kim
Nan Goldin once referred to photography as “the diary I let people read.” That sounds somewhat self-consciously artsy, the sort of thing you’d read in the Artist Statement of somebody in their first year of an undergraduate photography program. In Goldin’s case, however, it’s pretty … Keep readingNan Goldin
The aesthetic of landscape photography in the U.S. was shaped primarily in the West. This is the landscape of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston; it’s a landscape of open expanses, a primitive and pristine landscape, untamed and unspoiled. The land they photographed was unpopulated; there … Keep readingLewis Baltz
People who live in northern climates have a different relationship with the landscape. The reality of four very distinct seasons gives the natural world four very different faces, one for each season. Photographer Beth Dow, on the other hand, sees a fifth face. The face … Keep readingBeth Dow
I can’t say the photograph below was the first photo I saw by DeCarava, but it’s certainly the first of his photographs that I remember. More accurately, it’s the first of his photos that I’ve never forgotten. DeCarava had this to say about that photo: … Keep readingRoy DeCarava
Helen Levitt has a reputation among art historians and critics. She’s been called “a photographer’s photographer,” “one of the great living poets of urban life,” and “New York’s visual poet laureate.” She’s also been called, sadly but accurately, “the most celebrated and least known photographer … Keep readingHelen Levitt
Some lives seem more fiction than reality. Edward Sheriff Curtis lived that sort of life. He was born in Wisconsin in 1868, the son of a minister. Curtis’ father gave up the ministry when the family moved to Minnesota in the mid-1870s; he set up … Keep readingEdward Curtis
We all have them. Irrational beliefs, odd compulsions, unwelcome and intrusive thoughts, strange anxieties, illogical fears. Even the most emotionally healthy of us experience these things. They are ubiquitous and pervade almost every aspect of our lives. As improbable as it sounds, Sarah Hobbs photographs … Keep readingSarah Hobbs
During his career William Gedney only had one exhibit of his photography. He only had a single photograph published in a magazine in the U.S. He never worked on assignment. In fact, outside of a few other photographers, a handful of gallery curators, and a … Keep readingWilliam Gedney