Art
Photographs that Lie
Although photographs have always been altered, new tools and the pervasiveness of images have made a skeptical viewer. Still, photography's power holds strong.
Photography
Art
When Natural History and the Artist's Studio Collide
The American Museum of Natural History in New York is legendary for its examples of exquisite taxidermy and assemblages of bones, but these artifacts owe much of their vital aura to the museum’s trompe l’oeil murals, which offer sweeping panoramic visions of a land before time. Despite their flat su
Interview
Photos of Car-Pooling Migrants Reveal Another Layer to Mexico's Hyper-Urbanization
Photographer Alejandro Cartagena gets a snapshot of life from a unique angle: directly above the highway in the suburbs of Monterrey, Mexico. His series Car-Poolers documents the travels of commuting workers who drive daily from homes in the city's outer suburban sprawl to jobs more centrally locate
Art
Rineke Dijkstra: Contemporary Photographer or Old Master?
It’s very rare that museum directors or curators, when introducing a new show to a room full of writers and critics, say anything remotely thought-provoking or profound. Introducing the Rineke Dijkstra mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim, however, the museum director Richard Armstrong made a
Art
A Place Where Landscapes Transform into Poetries of Space
LAFAYETTE, Indiana — How do we know where we are? Those of us who rely on smartphone maps to navigate know this is not just a theoretical question. We use visual cues in the built or natural environment and the safety of a map’s grid to reassure us that we are where we think we are. Anyone who’s see
Books
The Sore Subject of Family Dynamics
The family unit, siblings, extended family, and the individuals who make up these large trees, is the subject of photographer Lydia Panas’ hardback book of glossy, meticulous portraits, aptly titled The Mark of Abel. Thinking back on the biblical story of Cain and Abel, Panas’ clever reverse of the
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Art
How Lawyers Ruined a Great Photograph [UPDATED]
Photographer Mo Gelber captured this rather romantic moment outside the Manhattan Criminal Court on August 16. He entered the image into the Project Imaginat10n contest organized by director Ron Howard and Canon. Gelber's photo is obviously quite powerful but the contest administrators let the photo
News
Have Researchers Found a New Photo of Emily Dickinson?
Today we take it for granted that we have photographs of pretty much everyone: famous or not, smartphone-owning or not, Instagram-using or not. It's hard to imagine anyone becoming famous without an attendant cache of images to identify them.
Art
Watching the Art Watchers
There is something about art that begs us to get closer, which is why museum guards often stride up to visitors with a warning: “Please don’t touch the artwork.” To many, guards can be a nuisance, but to San Francisco–based photographer Andy Freeberg, they are an inspiration.
News
New App Lets You Un-Instagram (aka "Normalize") Your Photos
A year ago, Fast Company checked in on Instagram, the immensely popular photo-sharing app, nine months after its launch and called its growth "staggering." That was before Facebook acquired it, this past April, and then, in May, Instagram hit the 50 million users mark. The lesson here? People really
Interview
Art’s a Drag: Leland Bobbé’s Split-Personality Portraits
Few men have the balls to be women, but even fewer can truly master the art of drag. New York–based photographer Leland Bobbé celebrates the fabulous queens that populate our fair metropolis in a new series titled Half-Drag, creating dynamic dual portraits of drag queens simultaneously in and out of
Books
Rediscovering a Moment in San Francisco’s Past
Earlier this spring, the de Young Museum exhibited recently uncovered work by photographer Arthur Tress. In 2009, while sorting through the belongings of his recently deceased sister, Tress found a number of prints and more than nine hundred negatives he had taken on a 1964 trip to San Francisco. In