Art
Darkroom Developer Trays as Portraits of the Artists
Disposable and deteriorated, the developer trays used by photographers are usually discarded.
Photography
Books
New York Noir: Capturing the City's Grit and Grime
Photographer Michael Ernest Sweet scavenges the constant contrasts of people in New York City for shots that show the grittiness and grime of its collective persona. Some of these photographs have been collected into a noir narrative called The Human Fragment, a monograph released in December by ind
Art
A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Marville's Photographs of Paris before Haussmann
The life of French photographer Charles Marville, the subject of a retrospective currently at the Metropolitan Museum, comes down to us hazy in its contours. Born Charles-François Bossu in 1813 to a family of artisans and tradesmen, Marville rid himself of “Bossu” (hunchback) after being teased abou
Art
A Brutal and Beautiful Planet: The 2014 World Press Photo Winners
The 2014 World Press Photo contest awardees were announced today, with the winners for the major photojournalism prize showing both the wonder and violence of the past year.
Art
Morgan Library Debuts Photography Department
The Morgan Library and Museum has received much favorable attention in recent years for its drawings-focused and literary exhibitions. But in March 2012, the institution named Joel Smith its first ever curator of photography, and now, nearly two years later, it will open its first exhibition organiz
Books
The Dark, Deranged World of Roger Ballen and Die Antwoord
The dirty alchemy of photographer Roger Ballen in combination with frenetic rap-ravers Die Antwoord resulted in the video for "I Fink U Freeky" in 2012. Now a monograph distills the mix of the South African collaborators to its elements.
News
Huntington Acquires Rare Photographs of Early Southern California
Photography was rare in the early days of California urban development, but some pioneer practitioners did get out to the burgeoning bustle of Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Now one collector's passionate focus on photography of 19th-to-mid-20th-century California has culminated in 4,600 images being
Art
Paintings Pictured and Pictures Painted: South Asia Through Early Lenses
The Rubin Museum’s Allegory and Illusion: Early Portrait Photography from South Asia opens an often fantastic, frequently attenuated window to photography’s quick and global sprawl, and the regional and cultural ways it took early root.
Books
The Retrofuture Shock of Post-Soviet Architecture
If you think Soviet architecture was strange — with its retrofuture angles and monolithic forms — you should see what came after the USSR's collapse. German photographer Frank Herfort has spent years traveling all over Russia and the former Soviet territories, from metropolises to remote rural zones
Books
Found Sounds, Found Stories: Andy Mister’s Liner Notes
Andy Mister’s recent book 'Liner Notes' captures the intimate texture of a consciousness that interacts with both the boring mundanity of an everyday work routine and the drug culture that, to some, is associated with an artist’s life.
Art
Modernist Camouflage, Reconstructed
The general goal of camouflage is to be invisible. Back during World War I, however, hundreds of Allied ships went to battle painted in bright geometric designs that were anything but subtle.
Art
The Surprising Beauty of Dead Leaves and Rotting Fruit
There's something to be said for an impeccable still life, a carefully composed scene of blooming flowers and ripe, luscious food. But there's a reason that the form's name in French is nature morte: things that don't move are either inanimate or dead. A long tradition of beauty springs from the wel