Since a common way of bashing certain forms of art is to point out that they emphasize style over content, it’s no big surprise that scientists now think people prioritize content over style when seeing art for the first time. It may also help explain why people have a hard time enjoying the style […]
It looks like I’m not the only one who was made a little queasy by Tim Barber’s “Various Photographs.” Others include Robert Wright, who also felt the depressing implications of authorlessness in the show, and Jörg Colberg, who was simply disgusted. (According to Wright, even Barber shrugged off responsibility for the thing.)
While I […]
For those of you hitting up the inaugural New York Photo Festival this weekend, I’ve done a quick run-through and picked out favorites among the exhibits. Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked–I had to catch a train down south, so I only had about 2.5 hours there. […]
A few weeks ago, I stopped by the Met to check out their “Photography On Photography” show. While it was fine, I was more impressed with another show that I stumbled into while I was there: Lee Friedlander’s Olmstead Park commissions. The Times review that appeared in January was mildly interesting (especially the […]
There’s a good article about the Flickr aesthetic(s) by Virginia Heffernan in last weekend’s Times. In it, Heffernan talks about the sort of community rules that determine a “good” Flickr photograph, which turn out to be a hodgepodge of technical quibbles (e.g., sharp focus), subject matter (animals, erotic photos, landscapes), and over-the-top post-processing. […]
Despite the unimpressed response from the blogosphere (see here and here), I think this year’s AIPAD marks a significant improvement over last year’s. AIPAD ‘07 sticks in my mind as a bunch of galleries trying to sell the same non-vintage Kertesz and Lartigue prints around every corner. While there’s still plenty of late […]
There are currently three different features on Gregory Crewdson in the media right now–not counting reviews of his new show at Luhring Augustine. There’s an art/human interest piece in New York magazine, an essay in Aperture redacted from a talk given by Crewdson about his influences, and an interview with Crewdson online at the […]
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 […]
Enid Crow is a photographer and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. In her images, she dons costumes–many of her own making–to explore themes ranging from spectatorship to gender relations. While Crow’s interests and techniques place her firmly within a tradition established by photographers like Cindy Sherman and Nikki S. Lee, Crow’s combination […]
A post on MAO and the provocative imagery (a photographer of fire?) drew me to Sarah Pickering’s show “Fire Scene” at Daniel Cooney Fine Art. I knew next to nothing about her, but as I looked over her images, I became increasingly excited. Each photograph confronted me with an elaborate detective story. […]
