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Sex, death, and exquisite shoes. That’s the legacy of fashion photographer Guy Bourdin. And the shoes–they’re a distant third, almost an afterthought. He was born in Paris in 1928. His mother was Belgian, his father Spanish; both were very young. While he was still an … Keep readingGuy Bourdin
Jan Saudek and his twin brother Karel were born in 1935 in the city of Prague in what was then called the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Four years later, Adolf Hitler’s army entered the city. Along with nearly 150,000 other Jews, most of Saudek’s family were … Keep readingJan Saudek
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
Kohei Yoshiyuki was an ordinary commercial photographer who spend nearly a decade documenting a strange subterranean aspect of Tokyo culture. After publishing his work, he became notorious for a short period of time. Then Yoshiyuki quietly disappeared from the art scene. It all came about … Keep readingKohei Yoshiyuki
It’s a strange thing to do, when you think about it–using a large format camera to shoot relatively formal portraits of casual strangers in nondescript settings. Yet that’s what Rineke Dijkstra has done for the last decade and a half. And she does it so … Keep readingRineke Dijkstra
Masahisa Fukase is part of that strange generation of Japanese artists born before the Second World War and who came to maturity after their nation was defeated and devastated. They are, in a distinctly Japanese way, a lost generation. Fukase was born on Hokkaido, Japan’s … Keep readingMasahisa Fukase
Sarah Moon is often referred to as an “impressionist” photographer. Her work is noted for a sort of softness, a vagueness that’s suggestive of the impressionist painters. Moon comes by this style naturally—she is extremely near-sighted. “It was only when I started photography that I … Keep readingSarah Moon
Is he a street photographer? Yes. Is he a documentary photographer? Yes. A photojournalist? A travel photographer? A portraitist? A fine arts photographer? Yes, yes, yes, and most certainly yes. French photographer Marc Riboud isn’t easily categorized, because he’s never specialized in any particular area … Keep readingMarc Riboud
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