On February 20, 2016, I was invited to serve as one of the judges of Untitled: Art Datathon at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Art Datathon was a two-day workshop dedicated to creating data analysis and visualization projects based on the dataset describing the collection of MoMA.
Read moreDefining competitive photography
In this article, I introduce a term competitive photography and define its historical emergence in the international juried exhibitions of photography in the 1950s. I believe that this term, competitive photography. brings into focus a large segment of photographic practices, contemporary and historical alike, which so far has escaped the attention of scholars.
Read moreClash of theories: New Objectivity versus Subjective Photography
In an interesting historical turn, what was meant to be non-art, became the very epitome of art (as exemplified by Albert Renger-Patzsch’s followers), whereas the most artistic photography of the 1950s (Otto Steinert’s Subjective Photography) turned out to be a dead end, at least from the perspective of today's art history.
Read moreMaking sense of the selfie
This article belongs to a series of related articles and book chapters that I have written since the late 2014 and early 2015 about photography in social media and selfies in particular. All these writings are based on research project Selfiecity that I co-authored with Lev Manovich, Moritz Stefaner, Mehrdad Yazdani, Dominikus Baur, Daniel Goddemeyer, Nadav Hochman, and Jay Chow.
Read moreArt of the masses: From Kodak Brownie to Instagram
This article touches upon some of the inherent complexities of understanding the selfie. Seeking for valid methods of theorizing and contextualizing the selfie, this article attempts to combine insights from the perspectives of history of photography and art history, digital humanities, and software studies.
Read moreGood photography is a game of rules
There’s two kinds of photography, one that follows the rules and one that does not. When you follow the rules, you get good photography. When you break the rules, you might either get good art or waste the resources. After years of studying photography that breaks the rules, I’m turning to photography that follows the rules.
Read moreGisèle Freund about women photographers
Gisèle Freund in 1954 wrote that "Women are interested in things more than in their relations to each other. They are not easily attracted by political or current events, but they distinguish themselves in portraits, children’s photographs, and they know how to capture with subtlety every expression of everyday life." From today’s perspective, it may sound outrageously “anti-feminist” and patronizing. But what if she was right?
Read moreKorean contemporary art in the US - judging a competition
Judging the 2015 Contemporary Visual Art Competition for Korean artists working in the US, organized by the AHL Foundation. The foundation awards generous prizes and helps the artists to promote their work by organizing a group exhibition at the Art Mora Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.
Read moreWork in progress: The aesthetics of Instagram photography
At the CUNY Digital Humanities event, November 20, 2015, I'm presenting work in progress, a research article co-written by Lev Manovich, where we discuss the aesthetic qualities of photography on Instagram and are attempting to answer questions such as: is "Instagram killing the art of photography" or rather "Here comes the new photographer" again?
Read moreEarly Soviet photography exhibition in The Jewish Museum
Why the early Soviet photography exhibition in The Jewish Museum is an outstanding overview of this important moment in the history of photography.
Read moreIt's a salt shed, not a modern art museum
No metaphors, no art, just salt. Department of Sanitation has commissioned Spring Street Salt Shed, an exciting structure that looks like a modern art museum.
Read more"The Impossibility of Capturing Butoh in Photography," a new book chapter
How to describe the relationship between butoh, a performance based on movement and emotion, and photography, a medium that freezes movement and removes all emotions? To address this question, in this article I compare of Kamaitachi (1968) by Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe (b. 1933), and Riga Pantomime (1964-1965) by Latvian photographer Zenta Dzividzinska (1944-2011).
Read moreMeet the artists selected for the artist residency program at the NARS Foundation
Meet the artists participating in the international artist residency program at the NARS Foundation, Brooklyn!
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