Art
Illuminating the History of West African Portrait Photography
Discussions of West African portrait photography tend to gravitate towards the 1960s and 1970s, the era of such well-known artists as Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Samuel Fosso.
Photography
Art
The Idealism of Early Soviet Russia in Pictures
The Jewish Museum’s The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film examines the beginnings of Soviet Russia, positing that the period from 1921 to 1932 was one of avant-garde artistic experimentation, a time when photographers and filmmakers (many of them Jewish) imagined their c
Art
The Queens of Botswana's Metal Scene
South African photographer Paul Shiakallis’s series Leather Skins, Unchained Hearts provides a visual alternative to the stereotypical metalhead in the popular Western imagination.
Art
Circuses, Rallies, and Soldiers: Photographs of Early-20th-Century American Clans
In over 100 vintage photographs, Hunt’s Three Ring Circus: American Groups Before 1950 explores how individuals in the early 20th century assembled into groups, linked together by experiences as official as military service or loose as a shared appreciation for the accordion.
Art
An Artist's Mission to Photograph Every House in Poland in the 1980s
In 1978, artist Zofia Rydet set out on a mission she knew was impossible: she wanted to photograph every house in her native country of Poland.
Art
Photography as Mummification
Despite Hollis Frampton’s prolific career as a filmmaker, educator, and essayist, and his position as a mainstay of the avant-garde film movement, he is only now having his first solo exhibition in New York City.
Art
The Rise of the 20th-Century Yearbook Smile
With their standard formats and widespread availability, high school yearbooks represent a historical data set of 20th-century style. They also capture how our tendency to smile in photographs has intensified over time.
Art
Keith Haring in Corn, and Other Artistic Thanksgiving Plates
This Thanksgiving, up your plating game and with some artist-inspired dishes courtesy of San Francisco-based artist Hannah Rothstein.
Art
Photography and Foreboding in 1970s Japan
For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968–1979 offers an ambitious social and art history of a decade ignited by protest, shaped by global power dynamics, and visualized through new art forms.
Art
Jacob Riis's Photographic Battle with New York's 19th-Century Slums
Jacob Riis may have set his house on fire twice, and himself aflame once, as he perfected the new 19th-century flash photography technique, but when the magnesium powder erupted with a white, blinding light, he illuminated some of the darkest corners of Manhattan's impoverished tenements.
Books
The Melancholy Art of Japanese Floral Arrangements
Ikebana, which translates to "living flowers," is the Japanese art of floral arrangement that dates back to the 16th century.
Art
Inside Marwencol, the Art Project That Helped an Amnesiac Recover from Assault
In April 2000, after drunkenly confessing his love of cross-dressing in a bar, Mark Hogancamp was brutally beaten and left for dead by five bigots in his hometown of Kingston, New York.