In today's image-saturated culture, the visual documentation of suffering around the world is more prevalent than ever. Yet instead of always deepening the knowledge or compassion of viewers, conflict photography can result in fatigue or even inspire apathy. Given this tension between the genre's ostensible goals and its effects, what is the purpose behind taking and showing images of war and crisis?
Conversations on Conflict Photography invites readers to think through these issues via conversations with award-winning photographers, as well as leading photo editors and key representatives of the major human rights and humanitarian organizations. Framed by critical-historical essays, these dialogues explore the complexities and ethical dilemmas of this line of work. The practitioners relate the struggles of their craft, from brushes with death on the frontlines to the battles for space, resources, and attention in our media-driven culture. Despite these obstacles, they remain true to a purpose, one that is palpable as they celebrate remarkable success stories: from changing the life of a single individual to raising broad awareness about human rights issues.
Opening with an insightful foreword by the renowned Sebastian Junger and richly illustrated with challenging, painful, and sometimes beautiful images, Conversations offers a uniquely rounded examination of the value of conflict photography in today's world.
Cabinet cards were America's main format for photographic portraiture throughout the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Standardized at 6½ x 4¼ inches, they were just large enough to reveal extensive detail, leading to the incorporation of elaborate poses, backdrops, and props. Inexpensive and sold by the dozen, they transformed getting one's portrait made from a formal event taken up once or twice in a lifetime into a commonplace practice shared with friends.
The cards reinforced middle-class Americans' sense of family. They allowed people to show off their material achievements and comforts, and the best cards projected an informal immediacy that encouraged viewers to feel emotionally connected with those portrayed. The experience even led sitters to act out before the camera. By making photographs an easygoing fact of life, the cards forecast the snapshot and today's ubiquitous photo sharing.
Organized by senior curator John Rohrbach, Acting Out is the first ever in-depth examination of the cabinet card phenomena. Full-color plates include over 100 cards at full size, providing a highly entertaining collection of these early versions of the selfie and ultimately demonstrating how cabinet cards made photography modern.
Art of any medium holds the capacity to connect the dots of an idea, or translate and re-translate perceptions, opening visual doors for a wider audience. This stunning collection of 110 California-based photographers reveals a shared appreciation and alignment for all that makes the west coast state the storytelling, dream-holding place that it is. Their images are as varied stylistically as the state is geographically, and reflect the people, places, and personality that help define California.
The book is not a compilation of only one type of photographer, or of only iconic California photographers, and is not meant to be an encyclopedic collection as such. Rather, the selection of photographers mirrors some of the project's essence at conception: together they represent a particular time and place of photographers in the canon of California photography, each looking outward at the land, sky, and people that distinguish California, each photographer finding moments to pause and in doing so, to celebrate.
n August 1993, when Nirvana was in New York to perform at the legendary Roseland Ballroom, Jesse Frohman photographed them for the London Observer’s Sunday magazine—the last formal photo shoot in which Cobain participated before he committed suicide on April 5th, 1994. Over the course of ninety photographs, Cobain seems an almost feral creature, by turns gentle, playful, defiant, suffering, or absorbed in his music. There’s a diverse range of shots of Cobain with fellow band members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl and on his own, posing, performing, and greeting fans. Jon Savage’s original interview, which appeared with Frohman’s photographs in the Observer is also reproduced, giving us Cobain in his own words. The book is a touching tribute to Cobain twenty years after his tragic demise, and following Nirvana’s recent induction in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 90 illustrations, 25 in color
Photographs by: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Lynsey Addario, Martin Adler, Richard Butler, Francesco Cito, Gary Calton, Chris de Bode, Donna De Cesare, Miquel Dewever Plana, Tiane Doan na Champassak, Colin Finlay, Riccardo Gangale, Cedric Gerbehaye, Jan Grarup, Tim A. Hetherington, Rhodri Jones, Bob Koenig, Roger Lemoyne, Zed Nelson, Peter Mantello, Heather McClintock, Olivier Pin Fat, Giacomo Pirozzi, Q. Sakamaki, Marcelo Salinas, Dominic Sansoni, Guy Tillim, Sven Torfinn, Ami Vitale, Vincent van de Wijngaard, Tomas van Houtryve, Kadir van Lohuizen, Alvaro Ybarra-Zavala, Francesco Zizola
Essay by: Jo Becker, Jimmi Briggs, Dick Durbin, Emmanuel Jal, Michael Wessells
The main stem of the Colorado River flows from the Colorado Rocky Mountains to the Mexico border. And while it provides water for almost 40 million people and irrigates 5.5 million acres of farmland throughout the American West, it is also one of the most over-allocated, highly controlled, and endangered rivers. Through extensive research of the historical as well as current day contextual factors and implications, photographer Debbie Bentley presents a comprehensive documentation of the river, its 16 dams, the reservoirs, and people in its path in her new book, Dammed: Birth to Death of the Colorado River (Daylight Books).
Paul Hart’s latest body of work Fragile (2020-23) is a personal reflection on nature and was made in the landscape close to his home in England. The aesthetic is rooted in the notion of a heightened awareness of the natural world, of both a physical engagement and spiritual connection to the land. Whilst becoming absorbed in this instinctual, visceral approach, Hart has become acutely aware of both the physical beauty and delicate vulnerability of these natural forms. Although concerns of the environment and sustainability are present throughout, Fragile departs from the central study of place usually associated with his work, to evoke a more abstract ethereal sensibility.
Der Greif and Shirin Neshat put out an open call, inspired by the line „I am a common pain, scream me“ from Ahmad Shamlou‘s poem “Common Love”, printed on the inner cover of this issue.
In a poignant exploration of humanity, Scot Sothern’s latest project, LOOK AT ME, turns a provocative lens on homelessness, Hollywood tourism, and the unseen struggles of everyday Americans. Through the lens of alternative street photography, Sothern positions himself as a modern-day vagabond, echoing the profiles of those he encounters on his odyssey, coming face to face with humankind, capturing the unfiltered essence of life at its most candid.
God’s Promises Mean Everything spans seven years in the life of Derek, a homeless hostel resident who lives in Teesside in the North East of England – an area that has a rich industrial history and was formerly a major iron and steel hub. After being granted permission by the hostel, he visited Derek 1-2 times a month – to drop off food or hang out, talk or just listen to music. Through these visits, this time spent in each others’ company became essential to the work and allowed a unique fully collaborative project to develop.
Dominoes is a unique and vibrant mosaic of the lives that float in and around a particular corner of Hackney in London’s East End. The book is populated by intimate pictures of people who have experienced addiction and pain as well as the deep joys of the community of which they are a part. Gillett Square was derelict and underdeveloped for years until, in the 1990s it became an experiment in urban regeneration. Just like the dominoes that are now played in the square, those lives are often precarious.
Alongside an exploration of Bayard’s decades-long career and lasting impact, Hippolyte Bayard and the
Invention of Photography (J. Paul Getty Museum, $65) presents—for the first time in print—some of the earliest
photographs in existence. Among the Getty Museum’s rarest and most treasured photographic holdings is an
album containing nearly 200 images, 145 of those by or attributed to Bayard. Few of these prints have ever
been seen in person due to the extreme light sensitivity of Bayard’s experimental processes, making this an
essential reference for scholars and photography enthusiasts alike.
For seven years, American photographer Barbara Peacock crisscrossed the United States photographing people in the spaces they defined as their bedrooms. The bedroom is an inherently personal space where humans are perhaps at their most vulnerable. Whether a room in a house, a camper, or an outdoor space, Peacock presents a body of work that invites the viewer to consider the stories we each carry, and how those unify us all.
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