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.
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
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
At a time in global history when connection with others has been tested from two years of separations and quarantining, Erica Reade's photographs resonate well beyond the beach atmosphere of the image settings. Her black and white photos are focused on intimacy and physical connections between couples at beaches in New York. She focused particularly on the Rockaways, Fort Tilden and Coney Island, and has called this project "an NYC summer love story." Expressions of love and sensuality are made visible in these nostalgic black and white photographs.
June' 22 sees the launch of a new colour, 68 page photographic coffee table book by British photographer - Rankin- An Exploding World that highlights the importance of creativity as a tool for mental well being.
The New York City subway system shuttles many of the over 8 million NYC residents from here, to there, and photographer Ed Hotchkiss journeyed on every line, criss-crossing the city and its boroughs, discovering and noticing. The subway cars gather and hold for a finite amount of time a seemingly random group of people, all with their own unique lives, hopes, and plans, and who each disperse and disappear upon exiting the train. This setting provides a unique opportunity to observe the vast array of humanity that signifies New York. These images reflect the value Ed saw in what he found.
Nearly half a century after he left his native Tanzania, Pradip Malde returned with a large-format camera to document the lives of women affected by female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). With Sarah Mwaga, founder of the Anti Female Genital Mutilation Network (AFNET), he traveled more than 3,000 miles over three years, visiting remote communities to converse with and photograph activist women —victims of FGM and former ngariba (Swahili for “circumcisers”)—, the sacred sites where these rituals take place, and the cutting tools used by ngariba who have renounced the practice.
Nancy A. Scherl's color photographs of people dining alone evoke a certain curiosity. What are the individuals thinking? What are they observing as they eat their meals and watch fellow diners? Is this a favorite pastime to collect their own thoughts, or are they waiting for someone, or are they lonely? The viewer does not know their stories, though they have them, everyone does.
Film photography is back with a bang, and whether you're returning to the genre after switching to digital, or you've just discovered this amazing medium, there's never been a more compelling argument for going analogue with your photography
KINGS ROAD by MONA KUHN, published by Steidl,is out now available from all good book stores. The exhibition is at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum in Santa Barbara, California, USA until May
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