Opinion
Photos from the Alien Landscape of Socotra
LOS ANGELES — Socotra. Most of us have never heard of it. Officially part of the Republic of Yemen, the island has long been isolated geologically from the rest of the world.
Photography
Art
Second Sight: The Photographs of George Hendrik Breitner
It’s unlikely, half a century from now, that a shadow oeuvre will appear among the personal effects of many contemporary artists, a secret body of work that parallels or even exceeds their public output. This is what happened with the Dutch painter George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923), whose several
Opinion
Instaprint Mixes Instagram, Polaroids and Printers
LOS ANGELES — The Polaroid is dead. Long live the Polaroid. They used to be a staple at any gathering, and then one day, they weren't. Those tangible remembrances of fine times had soon turned into cell phone camera snaps and then Facebook and Flickr albums. And now they're Instagram pictures.
Opinion
How Many Photos Do Americans Take a Year?
The infographic above appeared in the April edition of National Geographic, and it demonstrates that the American addiction to digital images has created a huge surplus of pixels that tell us what most of us already know, people like to take A LOT of photos.
Art
When Outsiders Feel More Familiar than the Mainstream
America is a country of immigrants, and the perspective of foreigners, newcomers and outsiders has always played a large a role in the history of contemporary American photography. Immigrants often have a way of showing us that which we cannot see for ourselves. In keeping with the tradition of outs
Art
Children of God
“One picture leads to another,” Alec Soth tells the two filmmakers in Somewhere to Disappear (2011), a documentary that follows him around during the last two years that he worked on his photographic book, Broken Manual (2006-11). Later, in the film, he says: “I want to be carried.” Soth yearns for
Art
Being Cindy
Cindy Sherman’s one-woman retrospective is profound, provocative and sadly incomplete, most noticeably in relation to her earliest works despite the inclusion of the entire black and white “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-1980), the “encyclopedic roster of stereotypical female roles” that skewered the p
News
Some Photo News You Should Know
The world of photography is changing fast. Here are some recent highlights … Kodak stops the camera biz, Flickr will upgrade, Gizmodo gets the exclusive about Instagram and Pinterest keeps growing …
Opinion
Rainy Cityscapes in Paris and Hong Kong
LOS ANGELES — I love the rain, and especially the aesthetic of rain. I always think back to the work of Hiroshige, whose rainy woodcut prints famously inspired Van Gogh's impressionistic landscapes.
Interview
Photographs from the South of Italy
CHICAGO — In his latest series of photographs, recently published by the Center for American Places, Wolke turned his lens on the landscape of southern Italy. Entitled Architecture of Resignation: Photographs from the Mezzogiorno, the series consists of large-format images of places filled with the
Art
In Case it Rains in Heaven
The heart of a society is most open when dealing with death. Its spoken and unspoken fears and hopes, both for life and the afterlife, are embedded in rituals of remembrance and memorial. In China, this has taken the form of detailed objects made of Joss paper that are burned for the deceased.
Opinion
The Floating World of One Woman's Camera Diary
Floating around Twitter and Sina Weibo as of late has been my new favorite blog, Yowayowa Camera Woman Diary. Lifted to the web by Tokyo-based photographer Natsumi Hayashi, the diary features a series of "daily levitations," as Hayashi drifts through the hustle and bustle of her city.