I am–or was–not a big fan of Ryan McGinley. When I saw that he’d been interviewed in this month’s issue of The Believer, I was apprehensive because (1.) The Believer has disappointed me with its photo coverage before (last year’s piece on Ralph Eugene Meatyard turned out to be a waste of time) and […]
There’s good piece on Michel Gondry in today’s Telegraph.
I wasn’t aware that Gondry invented the “bullet camera” effect popularized by the Matrix series, in which the cinematographer makes it look like a subject is frozen and the camera is panning around it. It’s achieved by splicing together frames taken at the same […]
The Australian ran this story today previewing a lecture at the University of Melbourne by renowned literary/art theorist Homi K. Bhabha. It consists almost entirely of Bhabha’s words describing his work and lecture. While I don’t agree with everything Bhabha says in the article (that art should be understood as another form of […]
Just finished reading the essay “Commerce and Consciousness” by Ben Davis at the invaluable artnet. The piece is an extended reflection on the tangled relationship between capitalism and visual culture, prompted at least in part by Johanna Drucker’s 2005 book on the subject entitled Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity. I’ve never read […]
Fred Ritchin is one of those photographic writers I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, he’s a solid stylist with good motivations—he’s one of the guys trying to enlarge the conversation about visual culture and bring everyone into the fold. On the other hand, his ideological stance often puts me at […]
291 doesn’t really do marketing, but…
The latest edition of Afterimage, the excellent journal of media arts and cultural criticism, is now out in stores. In this issue, among other great content largely focused on digital media, you’ll find an essay I wrote about Facebook and its impact on vernacular photography entitled “The Impersonal Album: […]
The Globe and Mail reported today that the Sanders portrait of William Shakespeare has passed the most recent analysis in the battery of tests being undertaken to prove the unprovable–that it represents the only portrait of William Shakespeare painted while he was still alive. It set me off on a search of portraits of […]
Even among the numerous jumbo-sized boats that dot Chelsea Piers on any given day, it was impossible to miss the SeaFair this past week. The shiny white megayacht, complete with its name in (neon blue) lights on either side, has garnered a lot of media attention recently with its novel approach to the game […]
291 was pleased to see this story hiding among the dull glut of media attention surrounding the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It’s a nice example of how the the predominance of cameras can make a complete amateur who witnesses an important event relatively famous. My favorite part of this story, […]
Over the weekend, the Times reported on the surprising importance of “stuff”–material goods, especially luxury goods that confer social status on their owners–in Second Life, the massively multiplayer virtual world.
I’m not convinced this is so surprising. What makes a place like Second Life unique is its visual aspect. AIM, Gmail, and other messaging […]
